Building code question: have a nice deck, never permitted.

[Josh Burtch]

I bought a house a year ago, and I've been rehabbing it with the intention of renting.

Previous owners built a wooden deck in the backyard. They disclosed that it was a project they did with some friends who were contractors and carpenters. So it's in great shape, done by professionals. But they also never got anything permitted or inspected, and there is no legal record of the deck existing. 

I want to get everything legal before renting the house, but I'm not sure how that works in this situation. Concerned about contacting the city and being told the whole thing needs to come down, since it was never permitted. Not sure if I need to work with a contractor just to start everything with the city. (And it's real hard to find a contractor in Denver at the moment anyways.)

Anybody been in a situation like this before?

[Bruce Woodruff]

Depends how high off the ground it is. As I recall, under 30" does not require a permit. But I could be remembering incorrectly, check your local laws.

If it is higher than 30", then you will have 3 choices: 1) See if the city will come out and look at it and issue a retro permit, 2) Ignore it if it looks to be well built, maybe have a licensed GC look at it, 3) tear it down and redo it.