Building Permits

[ISUKing]

I think this general topic may have been posted before, but I am just wondering what happens if you do the work without a permit. I just had an electrician come in and wire my basement (which is framed but not finished) and he pulled a permit. He had the stub-in inspection done, and then said that we will have to have it inspected again when we put the drywall up for a finish inspection. I may not be doing that part for a few years, funding pending, and he said the permit for the electrical expires after a year.

So my question is, if the permit expires after a year, and I do the drywalling and such myself without renewing that permit or pulling new building permits, what are the reprocussions, if any? Does it just come up at time of sale?

 

[isuno1fan]

Just pull the permit. Stop cutting corners.

 

[erikbj]

wouldn't worry about it! depending on the community, maybe a small fine.

 

[erikbj]

Just pull the permit. Stop cutting corners.

i would worry if it causes your house to be re-appraised and his property taxes go up 50%

 

[dosry5]

i would worry if it causes your house to be re-appraised and his property taxes go up 50%

Why would this happen?

 

[ColoradoClone]

I don't know about Iowa, but I know if Colorado if we had not pulled a permit for our basement finish, any issues down there like an electrical fire could invalidate our homeowners insurance. So if a fire starts in your unfinished basement and burns down you're entire house, nothing is covered.

 

[pyrocyz]

Why would this happen?

This would happen because your house is assessed based on finished square footage. As long as he doesn't put up the dry wall and finish the rooms, his basement isn't counted in the square footage.

But you don't have to let the assessor into your residence. You can dodge them and avoid them like the plague. If it is a community where the permit office is connected to the assessors office, they may not need to come in to assess the home. The permit would give them new square footage in the basement.

Problem with not pulling a permit is insurance liability. If you finish it off yourself, you are liable for a fire or damage because of the work that was done. If you have it properly inspected, the fault move to the city/county.

 

[ISU_phoria]

Since you've already had a permit for the rough-in pulled and it's been inspected, the City is aware of the project. You're most likely going to get a fine if you don't get the final permit.

Some towns here in the Twin Cities are actually requiring that you have a city inspection done before you can sell your house. If the inspector notices you've done work on the house without a permit, you would have to pay the permit costs and a fine before you would be allowed to sell your house. This is only in a few places that I know of right now, but my guess is that it will become more and more common in the next 10 years. You might want to see if you town/city has any such requirements.

 

[DJSteve]

Get in touch with your city's inspections department, explain your situation and see what they say. I'm pretty sure in Ames you can have the timeframe of a permit extended with a relatively small additional fee.

 

[clones_jer]

Since you've already had a permit for the rough-in pulled and it's been inspected, the City is aware of the project. You're most likely going to get a fine if you don't get the final permit.

Some towns here in the Twin Cities are actually requiring that you have a city inspection done before you can sell your house. If the inspector notices you've done work on the house without a permit, you would have to pay the permit costs and a fine before you would be allowed to sell your house. This is only in a few places that I know of right now, but my guess is that it will become more and more common in the next 10 years. You might want to see if you town/city has any such requirements.

I've heard horror stories where they then make you cut away your drywall to inspect the electrical - any validity to this? or is it normally just a fine?

 

[ISU_phoria]

I've heard horror stories where they then make you cut away your drywall to inspect the electrical - any validity to this? or is it normally just a fine?

I've only heard of them assessing fines, but I think that for life-safety purposes, they could make you expose electrical work to confirm that it's up to code.

 

[ISUKing]

Thanks for all the posts, I am not really trying to cut corners, the permits are only like 30 - 50 bucks which is a drop in the bucket of what the total cost would be. I am more concerned with having to permit and re-permit because I don't have a "quick" timeframe for completion established.