How 2 verify additional living space was built w/o legal issue?

[Sang Han]

Dear Fellow RE investors and experts, 

I would like to have your guidance here. I am looking for a property which has following information in its description. 

"Family room addition with half bath". 

I asked the listing agent if the seller followed the proper processes (drawing-permit-licensed GC-approved and so on) when he built this area. However, according to the agent, the owner purchased the property about 25 years ago, and the addition was already there even before the current owner purchased the property so that the agent would not know anything. 

Can any of you know how I can verify if everything is correctly done? Thank you very much. 

Sang

[Adam Mayberry]

You would need to check with the city to see if they have verified permit for the addition, they should have some record - if not it would be assumed build without permits or regulation.

Note, if you do go to the AHJ to check permits, jurisdictions will not then flag it as having unpermitted work. Code enforcement usually happens when illegal work is happening or if it is causing a safety concern - most always when a citizen calls out the Code Enforcement on something illegal