Non permitted addition

[Adam F.]

Scouting a home that the previous owner played builder on. There was a roof leak that created water damage on the floor and ceiling (small areas). My question is how hard and how expensive is it to keep the addition and bring it to code? The addition adds 1 bed, 1 bath, and a den (plan to knock a wall out to open up the living room that separates the den currently).

[Gerald Harris]

Often times that is a great problem to have. You can always take it out on price. People don't understand that this could hurt value more than help it. There were many homes in past times I would appraise and I couldn't count the added square footage because it was not permitted.

When I lived in California there was some red tape and time involved as well as a code violation. about 15k and a little over a month. I varies by location.

Check with your permit department. be careful. they may slap a code violation against the property on the current owner

The beauty for you is that you can get a better deal (Price). The owner will be even more motivated.

If you keep it and fix it, it can potentially bring in more cash flow for you.

Good Luck!

[Adam F.]

Thanks Gerald, it's a bank owned property taking highest offer currently. I think my best bet might be to have a buddy who's been through it all check it out.

[Rick Baggenstoss]

Non-premitted additions are very normal in GA. I suspect in parts of Florida they are as well.

You should get someone to walk thru and understand how poorly done it was. If it's bad, then @Gerald Harris nailed it -- deep discount.

[Adam F.]

@Rick Baggenstoss thanks for the reply. We held firm on our offer as I suspect the agent is bluffing on the multiple offer situation. The home has had no interest (mostly due to the addition).

[Carl Schmitt]

Be careful. I read a post on BP a year or so ago about this very thing. They got the entire rehab done, and then got caught up in the home inspection because there was no permit. They essentially had to start over, if I remember correctly.

In Ct, we rebuilt a small porch for a customer. When I went to get the permit, I found that the original deck builder didn't pull a permit. It was past the zoning boundaries for the area, and before some convincing, they were not going to let us tear it down or rebuild it.

[Raymond B.]

@Adam F.,

To make the @ work, do the following:

Hold down the shift key and type @?

Look below this Window, and you will see a list of names of people that have posted in this thread.

Click on the name of the person that you want notified via an email, that you responded to them.

If you are a Colleague with anyone that has NOT posted in the thread, and you want them to see your post, hold down the shift key, type the @ and the first 4 letters of their First or Last Name.

Then look below this Window and click on that person's name.

Raymond

[Adam F.]

@Raymond B. @Carl Schmitt Thanks Carl and Raymond

[David Krulac]

@Adam F.

It really depends on how tough your code enforcement people are and what their codes say. In many places if you get a permit and comply with all building, electric, plumbing etc issues and pass inspections you can keep it.

In some other places they can be very inflexible. There was a guy in a neighborhood where I lived that built a two story brick garage with an apartment on the second floor in his back yard with no permits. They refused to give him an occupancy permit and the place sat there for 20 years empty.

[Adam F.]

@David Krulac thanks for the info. Apparently we're good to go since there are no outstanding permits and we'll be getting one to get things up to code.