Permits Unknown / Making a Unit Legal

[Keeya WangJones]

Hi BP, What's your advice on buying a property with a unit on top of the garage that does not have a permit for the construction? How much trouble am I looking at? Can I get it permitted and everything be just fine? Would you have the seller deal with the permits? Would you still take the deal if you had to pay for permits? Cheers!!

[Kuba F.]

@Keeya WangJones @Ralph R. is right, you need to talk to the local building inspector.

In some municipalities there are so many unpermitted conversions/additions that they turn a blind eye to them as long as it's not counted square footage as part of a sale.  

Permits are generally not that expensive, but getting the property up to code can be.

Getting something permitted, often requires the removal of a significant amount of the unpermitted work so that it can be inspected.

Then you also get into issues with insurance not covering unpermitted parts of the house.

The way I would approach a house with unpermitted work is to talk to the building inspector to see if it's something that can be permitted, then if the deal makes sense without the unpermitted parts, purchase the house making sure to not pay for the unpermitted square footage, and if it adds value, rebuild the unpermitted section.