Did/do we need a permit?

[Anonymous]

our almost 100 yr old home has a sleeping porch on the second floor. it has a roof and it's above the kitchen another room on the first floor so it's part of the house (although it might have been a deck originally?) on three sides had windows all around, not closing windows but those fixed windows with pieces of glass that can be made parallel to the floor to let air in or perpenricular to the floor to limit air flow (sorry i have no idea how they are called). months ago we redid the siding of the entire house and at that time, in addition to changing the siding to the porch, we also added real insulated windows. now we are in the process of finishing the room inside. we are replacing the old and ugly wood panels with drywall, adding recessed lights to the ceiling, replacing the carpet with hardwood floor and adding electricity to the room (before the room just had a ligh on the wall, but there were no plugs - we are now having 5 electrical outlets added to the walls. we are also adding a mini split unit for heathing/cooling to replace the freestanding window unit we bought last year so the electricial will also add the power for the mini split. because this is simply finishing an existing room it did not even cross my ming that we need permit for it. even for the electrical work, which will be done with everthing to code by a licensed electrician. i suddenly got concerned about permit. do we need it for somehting like that? we had a fence installed years ago and i requested and obtained the permit by myself but in this case i have no clue what i would have to do. I dont want to have problems down the road if we want to sell the house. TIA

[Anonymous]

Is this in DC?

[Anonymous]

Ask the person doing the work.

[Anonymous]

Call your county office and ask.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Don’t ask questions if you don’t want the answer. I don’t see the upside to asking that now.

[Anonymous]

I dunno OP - this is a little hard to follow. If you've already done the work then don't worry about it. So many homes have unpermitted work in them, probably every single house I've ever owned (CCDC, CCMD, Bethesda) has had unpermitted work that was completed before we owned it.

[Anonymous]

yes we are in DC, sorry i forgot to add it. I am confident the work is done well, but I dont want to have problems if we decide to sell the house in the future. I checked the DC webiste and it is confusing but Hvac is mentioned expressly, so do we need a permit to just put a small mini spli unit in a 20X8 room? is the electrical part the problem? i am an axious person and with kds and a full time job, i am now having a mental meltdown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dunno OP - this is a little hard to follow. If you've already done the work then don't worry about it. So many homes have unpermitted work in them, probably every single house I've ever owned (CCDC, CCMD, Bethesda) has had unpermitted work that was completed before we owned it.

we are ready to start but the work has not started yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dunno OP - this is a little hard to follow. If you've already done the work then don't worry about it. So many homes have unpermitted work in them, probably every single house I've ever owned (CCDC, CCMD, Bethesda) has had unpermitted work that was completed before we owned it.

we are ready to start but the work has not started yet.

based on what you just posted, above HVAC person pulls their own permit. For electrical this is what I found:

https://dcra.dc.gov/service/simple-scopes-work-post-card-building-permits#:~:text=An%20electrical%20(general)%20postcard%20permit,residential%2C%20commercial%20or%20industrial%20project.

Electrical (General) Postcard Permit
An electrical (general) postcard permit is required for this work:

Installation of not more than 10 new outlets and not more than 10 new lighting fixtures for a residential, commercial or industrial project.
Replacement or repair of not more than 10 existing outlets and not more than 10 existing lighting fixtures for a residential, commercial or industrial project.
Installation of not more than 10 new outlets in a power-limited system for a residential, commercial or industrial project.
Installation or replacement of not more than 1 residential electric appliance for a residential project.

[Anonymous]

I would call and ask. Permits are required for a reason - safety. If the people who know about home design and construction thinks that certain work needs to be monitored and adhere to a minimum standard as set forth in code or laws, then I want the work on my home to meet that standard. If no permit is required then you've lost nothing in asking. If a permit is required then you know you've done the minimum you can to keep your family safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yes we are in DC, sorry i forgot to add it. I am confident the work is done well, but I dont want to have problems if we decide to sell the house in the future. I checked the DC webiste and it is confusing but Hvac is mentioned expressly, so do we need a permit to just put a small mini spli unit in a 20X8 room? is the electrical part the problem? i am an axious person and with kds and a full time job, i am now having a mental meltdown

Are you on the Hill? If so, check with the historical society. A friend of mine upgraded just her upstairs window and the Cap H Historial Society made her take them down. They will tell you if your house falls under their governance.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the answer is always yes. In dc you need to navigate a huge bureaucracy to do much more than hang a painting. Have fun!

[Anonymous]

Super illegal. Probably a 7k stop work order if a nasty neighbor tattled. Living in our free country is wonderful.

[Anonymous]

Permits are just taxes. If you're sure the workers are doing everything to code, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

It's a 100 year old house - is it even possible there has never been unpermitted work done on it? Check your paperwork from when you bought it -- I bet there has been, which means you'll have to check the same box when you sell.