Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our house was flipped with zero permits by the previous owner and we haven’t had an issue from the town (this is in Arlington). We plan to tear down and rebuild eventually so it wasn’t a big deal to us knowing that - we joked we bought a lot with a house on it.

"In-Kind" work permits are not a thing people care about. Meaning my 1975 house has 5 bathrooms brand new. Prior owner re-did all five bathrooms. No change in size. Who cares.

Should have specified previous owner was a LLC flipper who owned it for 4 months in between the original owner selling to the flipper and us buying. So when they did the flip they pulled zero permits. Is that still in kind?

Also, no fixtures were moved. Sink stays in same location, range stays in same location, etc... just replaced with new in like and kind.

PP here, thanks / good to know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our house was flipped with zero permits by the previous owner and we haven’t had an issue from the town (this is in Arlington). We plan to tear down and rebuild eventually so it wasn’t a big deal to us knowing that - we joked we bought a lot with a house on it.

"In-Kind" work permits are not a thing people care about. Meaning my 1975 house has 5 bathrooms brand new. Prior owner re-did all five bathrooms. No change in size. Who cares.

Should have specified previous owner was a LLC flipper who owned it for 4 months in between the original owner selling to the flipper and us buying. So when they did the flip they pulled zero permits. Is that still in kind?

Also, no fixtures were moved. Sink stays in same location, range stays in same location, etc... just replaced with new in like and kind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our house was flipped with zero permits by the previous owner and we haven’t had an issue from the town (this is in Arlington). We plan to tear down and rebuild eventually so it wasn’t a big deal to us knowing that - we joked we bought a lot with a house on it.

"In-Kind" work permits are not a thing people care about. Meaning my 1975 house has 5 bathrooms brand new. Prior owner re-did all five bathrooms. No change in size. Who cares.

Should have specified previous owner was a LLC flipper who owned it for 4 months in between the original owner selling to the flipper and us buying. So when they did the flip they pulled zero permits. Is that still in kind?

In-kind means like with like.
Meaning, no walls were moved. The sink was replaced with another sink in like and kind. The toilet was replaced with another toilet in like and kind. The range was replaced with another range in like and kind. -you get the picture.
So if the flipper simply changed out finishes and replaced items, it should be a no permit job.
However some jurisdictions will still insist on a permit because they want your money.

Honestly, no homeowner should have to pull a permit to replace a sink. Or a toilet. Or a faucet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our house was flipped with zero permits by the previous owner and we haven’t had an issue from the town (this is in Arlington). We plan to tear down and rebuild eventually so it wasn’t a big deal to us knowing that - we joked we bought a lot with a house on it.

"In-Kind" work permits are not a thing people care about. Meaning my 1975 house has 5 bathrooms brand new. Prior owner re-did all five bathrooms. No change in size. Who cares.

Should have specified previous owner was a LLC flipper who owned it for 4 months in between the original owner selling to the flipper and us buying. So when they did the flip they pulled zero permits. Is that still in kind?

Anonymous wrote:Our house was flipped with zero permits by the previous owner and we haven’t had an issue from the town (this is in Arlington). We plan to tear down and rebuild eventually so it wasn’t a big deal to us knowing that - we joked we bought a lot with a house on it.

"In-Kind" work permits are not a thing people care about. Meaning my 1975 house has 5 bathrooms brand new. Prior owner re-did all five bathrooms. No change in size. Who cares.

It really depends on a few things.

1. Do you trust the work?
2. What remodeling do you plan to do.
3. How does the local jurisdiction deal with open permits?

On #3, since the permit is open and the sellers never did an inspection before closing up the walls, the city or county could require you to rip it out and return to original state on the permit or rip out the walls and have an inspection. Electrical is easier to close but plumbing usually requires seeing what was done behind the walls.

Anonymous wrote:Our house was flipped with zero permits by the previous owner and we haven’t had an issue from the town (this is in Arlington). We plan to tear down and rebuild eventually so it wasn’t a big deal to us knowing that - we joked we bought a lot with a house on it.

Adding we also did a super thorough inspection (including structural) so we knew the work was good / safe so we weren’t concerned from that angle either

Our house was flipped with zero permits by the previous owner and we haven’t had an issue from the town (this is in Arlington). We plan to tear down and rebuild eventually so it wasn’t a big deal to us knowing that - we joked we bought a lot with a house on it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to have them close out the permit. It's just a call and a visit.

Lol. I don't think it's that easy. Don't you need to have an inspection? And that's where sh**t goes down. The useless bureaucrats get to flex their muscles.

You need an inspection, but when I had to do this in FFX County when we bought a house with an unpermitted bathroom it was very pro forma.

And OP wouldn't necessarily even need an inspection -- they could just have the house listed with the county as a 3 bedroom instead of four. It might already be listed as such and the only problem is that the real estate listing said 4. No inspections needed for that. You might have to adjust your mortgage app, but not a big deal.

Your realtor needs to tell their realtor to get it done.

Anonymous wrote:They need to have them close out the permit. It's just a call and a visit.

Lol. I don't think it's that easy. Don't you need to have an inspection? And that's where sh**t goes down. The useless bureaucrats get to flex their muscles.

I bought my first house with no permits filed on adding a third bath, a dormer in MBR, florida room conversion and a back deck. My Bank could care less .

My lawyer drew up a contract and we put funds from sale in escrow that I could use to file permit fees and pay for any stuff needed to get permit. Of course with sellers lawyers and my lawyer inolved. Only thing I had to do was make 2 trips to town to get permits filed, a few phone calls, inspector came twice. Once to look, found one minor thing, of course his BIL is an electrician if I hired him it should be good. I paid that guy $250 bucks. Permits were like only $250 bucks. I got permits, I got sent $500 out of escrow and seller got back his funds.

My lawyer had $20,000 in escrow so seller very happy I got it done for $500.

Town told me they get this all the time, homes sell ike this. They work with buyers as it is not our fault.

I debated skipping permits but it was a lot.

They need to have them close out the permit. It's just a call and a visit.

I closed on a house 10 years ago with an open permit for a remodeled bathroom. I am sure when we go to sell we will have to bring it everything to code. It is what it is.

Can also say that some of these towns are just out of their mind when it comes to building code? Who come up with this stuff? They always "hide" behind fire/safety issue.

We found a great house at a great price. The sellers are motivated. However, they do have open permits. The work was done, but not yet inspected by their town. Specifically they need an electrical and plumbic inspection. While an inspection of course will not flag all issues, we are happy with what we found.

Which direction would run to? Towards the house or away from it? If we do get it, what are some of the issues we can run into due to the open permits? If the issues are big, can we play "stupid" with the town and blame the former homeowner while pledging to help fix the issues.