Unpermitted addition on house I just bought

[Fearful]

[quote=Brutus]Don’t get a permit unless the project is easily visible from the street. The job of an inspector is to find things that are wrong. They are not happy until you aren’t.
Use good plumbers and electricians and make sure everything is up to code. Make the house safe.
Don’t use permits.
I learned this the same way you are: experience.
Say after me: Inspectors suck. Inspectors always suck. Inspectors always will suck.[/quote]

I did a lot of my own work in my house in Santa Clara and found the building department to be wonderful. The inspectors were patient and in no way abusive of their power. I understand that this is the exception.

The “Code Check” books from Taunton Press are a wonderful resource for the building codes. Illustrated and terse, I learned almost everything I know about building codes from them. So if you are going to be looking over your contractor’s shoulder (and you should!), you should build your own expertise in the codes.

[UCGal]

Our experience with the inspectors was mostly good as well. They caught stuff that was important. Sure they made a couple of really nothing-burger minor things get fixed…

The inspector, if they do their job, is making sure your home is safe/to code. Why not have an extra set of eyes. Not all contractors are perfect.

(I made myself LOL with that last line.)

San Diego’s code is mostly to the UBC… but there are deviations/additions. Drove my husband nuts.

I totally agree that you should be looking over the contractor’s shoulder.

[UCGal]

dup

[billfan]

Oh my goodness you have no idea how happy I am to report this….

Spent 3 very difficult hours down at the records office at the city, where it took 2 people to eventually help me find all the records on this house. They werent where they were supposed to be and if it werent for the second woman helping me I may never have found them. Turns out the original owner got permits for just about everything, including the addition! My contractor and I met with the inspector this morning and he actually approved most of the permit documentation I presented! His interpretation is allowing the addition AND the patio as permitted…the only sticking point is the wall that was put up in the kitchen to create the back third bedroom, so we’re modifying our current project plans to permit that wall…but since it’s not load bearing he doesnt think it’ll be an issue, just poking a hole to make sure the electricity in it is ok. He said he wouldnt even make us insulate any of it because it was previously approved without insulation (although of course he recommends insulating anyway, which we may do in the future when we have more money). He’s still making us lower the master bedroom window by an inch so it’s to code, which is just ridiculous, but we don’t have a choice on that. After that we should be free of all this mess. Thanks for all your help and comments! I had Ian the Permit Pro over and he was actually very helpful and knowledgeable, but I’m not sad to say that I didnt need his full services of re-building the entire back half of my house! Maybe now we can get some sleep and stop crying, ugh.

[CA renter]

That’s fantastic news, billfan! What a happy ending to very frustrating story.

Enjoy your new, totally permitted, home! 🙂

[UCGal]

What awesome news. You must be very relieved.

[NotCranky]

Good job and congratulations. I suspected proof of permits might have been in the “wrong” place.

[cvmom]

Congratulations on the persistence and due diligence!! So glad it paid off for you!!

[EconProf]

Glad to hear the good news.
Regarding your having to lower the window by an inch: This is really wasteful and shows how silly the government can be to make you spend all that money for no gain in safety. One way around it might be to build a “step” beneath the window. Of course you can remove it once the inspector has passed on it. I have heard of contractors doing this when they mismeasured ever so slightly in a window installation. Any Piggs have more info on this approach?

[NotCranky]

[quote=EconProf]Glad to hear the good news.
Regarding your having to lower the window by an inch: This is really wasteful and shows how silly the government can be to make you spend all that money for no gain in safety. One way around it might be to build a “step” beneath the window. Of course you can remove it once the inspector has passed on it. I have heard of contractors doing this when they mismeasured ever so slightly in a window installation. Any Piggs have more info on this approach?[/quote]

That’s what I was suggesting wrt the window, but the idea is that they will abandon a point if you start bartering with them on solutions for the really stupid stuff. Anyway the window height should be “grandfathered in” now that permits have been found.

[Anonymous]

I think you should need a proper plan for window size and shape. Also, the window height must be according to the your window wall height. The angles of the window should be “Z’ type which helps you to give a permanent and quality fix into the wall.Kitchen design

[Author]

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