Devastated....Unpermitted garage conversation to office space

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What on earth? Half the houses in dmv have this! Why do you have an attorney doing municipal searches? Where is this? Another buyer will snap it up sorry. You might just not be ready to buy a house. [/quote]

LOL I don't know what this either but when we were house hunting I remember a house with notes blatantly saying basement refinished/no permits/deal with it.

We didn't buy it but I'm pretty sure the house sold just fine.

Don't these things get grandfathered in after a while? [/quote]

No

[Anonymous]

This is one of the reasons why nearly every house, at least in DC, that was originally constructed 75+ years ago, is sold "as is".

The house may have already been through 5+ owners, and nobody is taking responsibility for what the prior owner did.

The other reason is of course that there are plenty of estate sale houses where the parents lived in it for 60+ years and the heirs have no clue what the parents have done with the house for the 30 years they have not been living in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons why nearly every house, at least in DC, that was originally constructed 75+ years ago, is sold "as is".

The house may have already been through 5+ owners, and nobody is taking responsibility for what the prior owner did.

The other reason is of course that there are plenty of estate sale houses where the parents lived in it for 60+ years and the heirs have no clue what the parents have done with the house for the 30 years they have not been living in it.

To me that's the same thing as "grandfathered in" - it's not stopping anyone.

[Anonymous]

Well, OP, what's the fallout? Is there even one?

[Anonymous]

Why the heck would you care. I mean he could get permits, he pays fees, then you close your property taxes go up.

Or let it be.

My sister bought a five bedroom and four bath 3,000 sf foot home in 2002 which had a large unpermited addition upstairs above two car garage roof and basement finished with bath.

On tax records it is 2,400 sf with unfinished basemnt and two bathrooms. She sold it in 2022 and saved around $160,000 in property taxes over that time frame. The cash buyer paid above ask as attracted by low low property taxes. She told sister plans on tearing down wall between small den and two garage and making it a one car garage to make a large den, taking down wall between kitchen and dining room to make that a great space all no permits. She bought it with husband and two young kids and said staying for at least 25 years to retirement and will save 10K-12k a year. A 250K savings.

I am sure next buyer will jump on it in 25 years a now 3,300 sf house with finished basement and four baths taxes as a 2,400 sf house with unfinished basement and 2 bathrooms.

It is a selling point a lot of people.

[Anonymous]

It will come up when you try to sell.
Or fall on your kids when they inherit it.
If you persist and buy it get a concession from seller to cover cost of you doing retroactive permitting and code compliance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will come up when you try to sell.
Or fall on your kids when they inherit it.
If you persist and buy it get a concession from seller to cover cost of you doing retroactive permitting and code compliance.

Or just turn it back into a garage.

[Anonymous]

when we bought the sellers had a relocation company handle the sale. Their company made the sellers disclose and permit the basement they finished before we could close. Otherwise the sale wouldn't go through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As long as you can get a mortgage and insurance what’s the issue?

+1

The previous owners weren't the ones who did the conversion and clearly had both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why the heck would you care. I mean he could get permits, he pays fees, then you close your property taxes go up.

Or let it be.

My sister bought a five bedroom and four bath 3,000 sf foot home in 2002 which had a large unpermited addition upstairs above two car garage roof and basement finished with bath.

On tax records it is 2,400 sf with unfinished basemnt and two bathrooms. She sold it in 2022 and saved around $160,000 in property taxes over that time frame. The cash buyer paid above ask as attracted by low low property taxes. She told sister plans on tearing down wall between small den and two garage and making it a one car garage to make a large den, taking down wall between kitchen and dining room to make that a great space all no permits. She bought it with husband and two young kids and said staying for at least 25 years to retirement and will save 10K-12k a year. A 250K savings.

I am sure next buyer will jump on it in 25 years a now 3,300 sf house with finished basement and four baths taxes as a 2,400 sf house with unfinished basement and 2 bathrooms.

It is a selling point a lot of people.

At least where we are located, the most recent selling price of a house is what most determines the property taxes. If your house is valued at 3,300 sq ft with a finished basement to a new buyer, it's irrelevant if the county perhaps describes it differently. The county would only lower your taxes and property value if the overall market declined.

[Anonymous]

As long as garage door still exists and just sheetrocked behind it you can cut sheetrock and open door in worse case and a garage again.

My two car garage is attached. I could easily on inside some plywood, insulation and sheetrock close off side by garage door. The other three sides sheetrocked already than I could add heat. Exactly what is issue? techincally I need a permit, but who would know? When I sold I just tell next buyer take it as is or I remove sheetrock. insualtion and plyhood and make it a garage again.

To be honest converting garage is a plus some people and a minus some other people. Once you do permits hard to undue.

My neighbor did it when his son needed extra bedroom. But set it up to remove when he was empty nestor. He did not want permits

[Anonymous]

This is not a big deal even in towns that the permit process extremely seriously.

I say it's not a big deal because it's a conversion of an existing space and not an addition. If it was an addition done without permit, I would walk away

Frankly the seller can take care of this within a few days. They need to retroactively apply for a permit. Permit cost depends on the price of the project. If I were them I would take the high end of the cost for this project using Chatgpt estimate. The town will be very happy to take the money for the permit.

As long as they are windows (which I assume there are) and the job wasn't done badly it's okay.

And since the seller claim they bought it with the conversion already done (sometimes municipal search miss things and they are found the next time the house is on the market again), the town will give them an easier time.

Be careful with the Internet. If you Google this, you will people after people saying their town told them to revert back to a garage. Those cases are extreme.

Don't let this kill the deal. Closing dates aren't an meeting with God that you can't miss. Closing dates do change.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Worse case, your title insurance may not cover the unpermitted space. If the municipality made you take out the unpermitted space, you would have to pay to either do it or hire a lawyer to fight the requirement.

[Anonymous]

I will be less concerned than if it was a kitchen addition or bathroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not a big deal even in towns that the permit process extremely seriously.

I say it's not a big deal because it's a conversion of an existing space and not an addition. If it was an addition done without permit, I would walk away

Frankly the seller can take care of this within a few days. They need to retroactively apply for a permit. Permit cost depends on the price of the project. If I were them I would take the high end of the cost for this project using Chatgpt estimate. The town will be very happy to take the money for the permit.

As long as they are windows (which I assume there are) and the job wasn't done badly it's okay.

And since the seller claim they bought it with the conversion already done (sometimes municipal search miss things and they are found the next time the house is on the market again), the town will give them an easier time.

Be careful with the Internet. If you Google this, you will people after people saying their town told them to revert back to a garage. Those cases are extreme.

Don't let this kill the deal. Closing dates aren't an meeting with God that you can't miss. Closing dates do change.

Good luck!

Some towns don’t allow garage conversions. I’d check on this one.