This law absolutely applies in your case where you are renting two houses.Maybe this doesn't make sense to you, but I assure you ignorance of the tax law does not exempt you from having to follow the law. 

My credit just went down 15 points because I applied for a personal line of credit not too long ago.

This applies to all buildings but residential and commercial building have different standards.

Don’t want to sound like a douche but how can I apply for a refund and just get the paper copy.

The busts follow the booms, which in turn leads to the next bust ... it is the nature of the beast.

And I'm glad I did.I guess the caution posed to me could apply to your situation, as well.  

There might be two exceptions that may or may not apply to you.  1) If making two bedrooms robs you of any chance of having something one could call a 'master' (even if it's just bigger), you might want to get the opinion of a realtor very familiar with the area, and 2) sometimes a bedroom in a basement doesn't count as a bedroom.  

Although I did not apply for those permits it looks like they could be charging me for the future sewer use of the tenants.  

If someone had aspirations to be a teacher, would you tell them to apply for a lunch lady position because jobs at a school are all the same?  

My daughter applied for an apartment last month and was approved.