Has anyone been through a garage reconversion?

Question

I made an offer on an REO that has an unpermitted garage to bedroom conversion. If my offer is accepted, I want to convert it back to a garage.

The county told me that house has no current fines on it for code violations. The former owner put an unpermitted door on the side of the house to enter the garage/bedroom. The actual garage door is still intact.

The county told me I would have to get an architectural engineer to come out and do a drawing for a plan in order to remove the new door. Does anyone has an idea of how much these drawings cost? I'm not even sure who to call to find out about doing this.

Also, as the new owner, could I be liable for back property taxes based on the fact that that additional room was never assessed? The county didn't mention this on the phone but I was reading about this on the web. I don''t know what year this conversion was put in, and it looks like the previous owners got about 80% through the conversion, so the new room was probably never used.

Jason Fant · Answer

Why not just leave the door in place as a service door? I've got one in my garage. I'll admit that I've never done a block building so I can't give specific advice on how to properly fill the hole, but my advice about calling for the courtesy inspection still stands. If you get the inspector to buy off on your approach you'll likely be able to get the plans requirement waived. You'll still need a valid plan to fix it, you'll just save the engineer and drafting expense.

Good news about the assesor. As far as the insurance is concerned, you shouldn't have an issue. That's why BR policies are si expensive because the cover under contruction buildings. You don't want to hide anything from them as it will give them an out God forbid you need to make a claim.

Jason Fant · Answer

Hi! As far as the engineer goes, I would contact a local draftsman and have them do the drawings. Most have relationships with an engineer that can review and stamp the drawings and you will save a little money. I did this with a foundation for a modular home that I built a couple of years back and I think the whole thing cost me around $800 in Maryland. It would have been easily twice that if I had the engineer do the whole job. I can't imagine it would near that much for simply replacing a door.

What you will likely end up with is an as built detail drawing of the door and framing and the framing detail for replacing the hole. I can't imagine why they are requiring drawings to remove a door, but each municipality is different.

Another route you might take is to have an inspector come out for a courtesy inspection and look at the door and explain to him how you are going to frame to remove the door (make sure you are providing for a header in the framing). He'll likely offer you his opinion; agree with whatever he tells you. If he's ok with it, see if the permits board will waive the plans requirement. Most of the time, the inspectors will work with you, especially since you're trying to do the right thing and bring the structure back up to code. I was able to get permits to rebuild a 2 story addition once using this process in Baltimore county, I imagine you'll probably have success with it for just framing in a door.

As far as the assessors are concerned, I don't imagine you'll have any problem, but then again stranger things have happened so I wouldn't dare say for sure  that it will be ok.

Michael P. · Answer

UMMM

Why does the city even need to know about you removing the door?

If the city doesn't know about it just go make the change and they will NEVER know.

As far as taking the garage conversion back to a garage I have done it before.  It was pretty simple and painless.  The people had even removed the garage door and put brick up.  I just knocked it all out and installed the garage door.

Jason Fant · Answer

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

Bienes Raices · Answer

I made a very low offer on that, and the bank never responded at all. I'm making another offer 8000 higher than the first one. If the bank doesn't counter this time, I'll probably give up on this one.

Luis A. · Answer

Why would you need an engineer to remove a door?

I recently converted a closed out garage back to a garage and it was very easy since it was just a drywall job.

I guess this can depend on your county regulations/permitting but then again the easiest thing would be to leave the door.

Robert Mayo · Answer

Around here a permit for removing a door would simply involve the owner's hand-drawn framing plan or equivalent, a revised floor plan, and the minimum ($50?) permit fee.  You might see if they will accept something informal like that for such a small job.

Bienes Raices · Answer

Thanks, I'll do that. It sounds like it could be doable, My offer expires at EOD tomorrow. In the meantime I'm looking at other things, trying to take the advice on here not to fall in love with a single deal.

Bienes Raices · Answer

Jason, the house is concrete block, I guess what the county is concerned about is the plan to refill the door area once the door is removed.
If my offer is accepted, I'm planning to use builder's risk insurance temporarily while the work is done. But should I tell the insurance company what kind of work is being done? I'm concerned that the insurance co. will have some kind of issue with an unapproved garage, even though I'm converting it back.

Has anyone been through a garage reconversion?

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