I have family in the area and during the demo process my cousin happened by. Now, I hadn’t seen this cousin in years, and he doesn’t live in the area. I still believe my late mother sent him. That's why we call it the Holy Ghost House. This would be an invaluable reunion, because he is a licensed electrician. He has worked on many job sites and he noticed issues. One, where was the building permit. He said, it should be displayed in the window, house, tree, somewhere it could be seen. I didn’t have an answer. Two, the workers had cut through a support beam. Needless to say, I was alarmed and contacted the contractor. The contractor told me he had a process and he would pull the permit because he didn’t want the delay. He didn’t remember if he addressed the cut support beam.
Not satisfied by the contractor permit answer, I called the county building permit department. I was told not all remodels need to be approved, but since I was adding a bathroom a permit should be pulled before work begin. A permit needed to be pulled because a bathroom was being added and the health department needed to approve. Also, there was major construction, so a permit needs to be pulled. They also told me no permit had been pulled. So, I called the contractor again. This time he told me he had pulled the permit. I knew this was untrue because I had just gotten off of the phone with the county.
***Hindsight- Red Flag*** A contractor that doesn’t pull a building permit when it’s a requirement by the county is probably going to cut corners.
Note – I know homeowners do not always want a building permit pulled, because it can increase your property value and real estate taxes might increase. Keep in mind if there’s a building issue, like your wall falls down, your homeowner’s insurance might not cover it if the proper permits weren’t done. You also may have an issue during resale if the county records land and improvements doesn’t match your actual home.
Comments