Selling a house without going through inspections - Posted by NewbeSue

import · May 23, 2007, 12:56pm

Posted by ski on May 26, 2007 at 09:24:49:

Had a simular situationn. I added a 39" wall and a door to create another bedroom. All the a/c and electric was there already. Got caught. Inspector put in his report that I enclosed a florida room and estimated the cost to be 9k. My actual cost was less than $100.00. Didn’t realize that I needed any permits to do that little work. County disagreed. It took about 8 months to clear this situation up. County was not going to allow this conversion, but relented when the inspector submitted photos of the wall taken through a window. This was VERY illegal. Some may ask why did I not just take down the wall. Well it seems that I would have needed a demolition permit to do so but I couldn’t get that permit because it was an unpermitted wall to start with.

import · May 23, 2007, 12:56pm

Posted by NewbeSue on May 23, 2007 at 12:56:29:

Need an advice from experienced rehabbers, please.

I’m finishing up a rehab of a single family home, we added a pantry room, a couple of separation walls (not carrying walls), updated master bathroom, everything else is cosmetic, such as new floors, paint, moldings, etc. No room additions. We modified one carrying wall, for which we pulled permits and passed the inspection, nothing else structural. If not for this carrying wall modification, we wouldn’t even have to pull permits and deal with the city.

Now we are having problems with the local municipality. The city inspector seems to have an ego power trip and wants me to strip down the drywall to expose all framing of those new separation walls, he wants us to do a plumbing tests for the updated bathroom, and he’s telling us that without these things he’s not going to let us pass the final inspection.

What are the consequences if we elect not to go through the final inspection? I can disclose to the buyer that the property did pass the inspection of the structural part of the work, and that we chose not to go through everything else because we find the cost of stripping down the drywall unreasonable. The work was done by licensed contractors, we will provide home warranty, etc. If we are forced to undo the work that we’ve done to accommodate these BS inspections, I figure it’ll cost me about $10,000 in additional costs, holding time, etc.

ASSUMING that the buyer is aware of the status of the inspecitons and doesn’t mind buying the house without the final inspection (and signs appropriate disclosure), are there any consequences from the city that I should consider? What’s the worst that they can do? What would you do under the circumstances?

Thanks

import · May 23, 2007, 3:07pm

Re: Selling a house without going thro - Posted by Gene

Posted by Gene on May 23, 2007 at 15:07:21:

I agree with the others posters…

Eat some humble pie, and do what ever it takes to pass the inspection.

import · May 23, 2007, 2:00pm

Re: Selling a house - Posted by Michaela-CA

Posted by Michaela-CA on May 23, 2007 at 14:00:39:

I’m a little confused here. You say, that it passed the framing inspection, so, why would th einspector now make you expose the framing again? Something’s missing here.

You have alicensed contractor - who made the decision to go forward on this without permits/inspections? Was it him? Well, then he should carry the burden. Was it you?

Years ago, when I was starting out I had a contractor kind of intimidate me, telling me that we didn’t need framing enspection, before the sheetrock is being installed. I thought he was wrong, but let him convince me. Luckily I took pictures of everything, which showed the insulation in the walls.

I ended up splitting with that contractor and found out, that, yet, I would have needed a framing inspection. I went ‘head in hands’ to the inspector, told him, that I screwed up royally and what could I possibly do now? He came to the site, looked at the pics and allowed me to go forward.

In general I found that the inspectors are pussycats, if you come to them with the attitude, that they are god and that you would love to get their opinion on how to do things and that you’d love to learn from them.

I think you really need to satisfy the inspector, because a lot of mortgage companies will require a certificate of occupancy, which you only get with a signed off permit. Also, some of the home inspectors will check on permit status as part of their job and that would go on to hte buyer.

Michaela

import · May 23, 2007, 1:14pm

Re: Selling a house - Posted by ken

Posted by ken on May 23, 2007 at 13:14:30:

You either get permits and inspections on everything or nothing.The inspector is only doing his job.He cannot sign off on it without seeing it.What buyer would want to buy it at full price knowing there are problems with the inspections?If you do not tell the buyer about the problem you will just get sued later.If you do not make the inspector happy good luck getting another permit in that town.Maybe if you plead stupid he might give you a break and not make you remove everything but it sounds like you probably gave him an attitude and he is going to show you who is in charge.I think you need to do whatever it takes to make the inspector happy and get it passed

import · May 25, 2007, 1:50pm

Re: Selling a house - Posted by Rich_in_CT

Posted by Rich_in_CT on May 25, 2007 at 13:50:34:

Why are we even having this conversation? You should have just pulled all the proper permits and had all (not just some) of the inspections done when the sheetrock was off. Why do people always try to cheat the system?