Building department doesnt like it when i do my own repairs

[Oscar Martins]

Went to the building dept in my town today, I have some electrical work that needs to be completed in order to get a clean certificate of occupancy, anyway they said that i needed a licensed electrician to do all of the repairs. This is my eighth flip in the same town, has never been a problem, have always done the work myself and pulled the proper permits. They had me sign an oath stating that I am the owner and will be occupying the property and am responsible for the work. I am planning on getting the C/O in my name as soon as the list of repairs has been completed. Im going to move into this flip until I sell it. Do you think there will be problems when its time to sell (probably six months to get it under contract and sold)?

[Mike H.]

Yea. Some inspectors go so far overboard, its ridiculous.

The one in Lansing really turned me off to that town entirely - even though the prices are pretty good as are the rents. Its just not worth the hassle though.

I'll say this much, though. I do believe in pulling permits every time I get a house. Even if its only carpet and paint, I'll call the village and check that I don't need one just so they see that I'm reaching out and not trying to pull a fast one.

I've found that villages and inspectors tend to be a lot friendlier if you're at least putting in for the permits. I also think its well worth the $100 or $200 for the permits because then I get someone else looking at the work.

You'd be surprised how many little things the contractors will miss that might actually have some importance.

The other issue in pulling permits is that, if there are any problems with the house later on, I can show I had a licensed contractor do the work and had it inspected by the village as well. I've made a "reasonable" effort to ensure the house was safe.

I'm not sure people who do the work themselves could say that if they're not licensed and if no inspection was done. I know they can try to claim that the work was done before they bought the house. But I don't think insurance adjusters or attorneys are that dumb. They can easily tell how old some of the wiring, hvac, plumbing stuff is and can do the math from there.