When to involve a city inspector

Question

My wife and I are about to purchase our very first property. Local city law says I can fix it up without having to involve a licensed contractor if I do the work myself. However there are some things I do not know how to do so I will be contracting that out. We have yet to determine if we will buy and hold this property or flip it. Either way I believe we will need a permit.

A family member, who is also a seasoned real estate investor, told me not to involve the city unless I have no choice. However I know that if I have the inspector comes in and I explain to them what I want to do they will tell me what is code and what isn't. I want to do this because I can then better determine what will fit in my rehab budget. This will also help me determine if I fix it up enough to rent it or if I spend a little more and fix it up to flip it. The last thing I want to do is spend the money fixing it only to have it not pass inspection. Costing me more money.

Here is my question, When you purchase a property like this when do you involve the city inspector?

Geordy Rostad · Answer

@Jeff Higgins

I think you might have a couple of misconceptions about the city inspector.

If you are doing electrical, HVAC, structural, or plumbing work, you need to pull permits. The permits trigger the city inspection. The city inspector is not going to come into your project until you reach certain stages. They are not going come out to your property ahead of time to consult you on what is code or not. You(or your contractor) need to know that stuff.

When you pull permits, you will call the inspector out at certain times to have them sign off that work was done correctly. If they come and see things that don't meet code, you will fail inspection. At that point, you have to remediate the problems and call them for a reinspection.

You can do a LOT of work that will not require an inspection by the city. New flooring, millwork, counters/cabinets, painting, etc. In some cities you don't need a permit for the roof, siding, etc... but in some you do. You really need to go down to the city, tell them about the scope of your project and see if a permit is required for anything.

There are several risks to not doing this:

1) Incorrect work done by a contractor is not discovered.

2) House burns done due to faulty work you have done. Insurance discovers the cause to be unpermitted work, then you're screwed.

3) House burns down due to faulty work and injures/kills tenant. Insurance won't pay for that either and then you're getting personally sued (no matter how many LLCs you have).

4) When you go to sell the property, a savvy appraiser discovers your remodeling and asks you to prove that the work was permitted. The bank won't fund if you can't produce the permit(s). (This exact thing happened to my client on a property I sold for him)

5) City catches you in the process of doing this unpermitted work and red tags your property. Then you get fined, your timelines get extended, and they don't cut you an inch of slack in future interactions.

This list of risks is FAR from exhaustive. I see no sensible reason to risk any of these outcomes.

Jeff Higgins · Answer

@Geordy Rostad @Pat L. Thanks for the advice and information. Really appreciate it greatly.

Geordy Rostad · Answer

@Jeff Higgins

Typically the inspectors are only concerned with code issues for the parts of the building that you are doing work on.

That is a generous offer for him to come out and give you a preliminary meeting. They've certainly never done it for me.

I would take him up on it. If you show them that you are trying to do everything right and that you are keeping them in the loop, that gives them more of a comfort level and usually they will be more willing to work with you on issues. I think this would be preferable to pulling permits and starting work without involving them up front.

Pat L. · Answer

Well our guy just shows up. So as soon as we had a dumpster in the driveway he appeared & asked what are intentions were, they also get alerted whenever a property sells & this was foreclosure sitting for a couple of years. I then sent my wife down to his office to go over all that we were doing & he gave us a bit of break on permit costs. He is a tough SOB so she did well, but he would drop in unannounced several times during the rehab. Then the electrical & plumbing inspectors required access so it was interesting but we did it.

I had a guy help me pull wiring & then he went on to help a flipper rewire his flip in the same town. The Inspector showed up after all the drywall, backsplash tile etc was in. Apparently my guy used the wrong gauge wiring, junctioned off existing circuits for the GFI's & so now the backsplash needs to be torn out Other circuits were incorrect as were the lack of AFCI's & he had double tapped breakers. The flipper has had a stop work for a couple of months now waiting for an electrician who wants to work with this bldg inspector.

Do it right the first time.

Jeff Higgins · Answer

@Pat L. Thanks for the info. At what point in your process did you call the city? Was it before you started or while you were in the process of actually doing your rehab work.

I'm new to this so I am not as familiar as to all the codes. Based off of the two replies I think it's clear I need to do more research in understanding the city code better. Thanks again.

Jeff Higgins · Answer

@Geordy Rostad thanks for the advice. I did go down to the city already and spoke with the inspector. He was the one who told me he would come out and tell me what is code and not. I live in a small town so I am guessing that his offer was purely a courtesy. I wouldn't expect that in a bigger city.

So my question to you is would you take advantage of that considering I plan to do most of the work myself and may not be as familiar with the code as a contractor or would you just do the research on your own and then do the work and then have it inspected?

Also is there any reason to think that if I have the inspector come out first he would point out areas that don't meet current code and force me to fix that issue costing me more money. I'm just trying to understand why I wouldn't take advantage of the offer to come out and give me in the inspectors word "advice is free but the inspection is not"

Pat L. · Answer

We did a flip last year & I was allowed to pull all the permits & do the all the work, structural (LVL beams etc), all new electrical including rewiring & all new plumbing. It was inspected to the nth degree & signed off. When it sold the first thing the buyers attorney asked for was all permits & proof the worked was inspected & signed off. It was also fwd to their insurance carrier. Yet their home inspector did not ask for the same proof of permits or the extent of work done.

When to involve a city inspector

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