How does a Permit Process works in California?

Question

Hi guys,

I have a property in  Santa Barbara county and I am trying to convert a room into a 4th bedroom. In order for it to be officially called a bedroom I need to get the county building department to issue a permit.

I know I cant start work without a permit. But once I get the permit and do the work, after the work is done, does the building department representative comes to look at the work to give a final approval? So in that case, even though we got a permit and did the work, the building department may still not approve it to be an official bedroom?

Or :

once you got the permit they do not check and basically its guaranteed to be a 4th bedroom?

Thank you!

Allen Maris · Answer

@Mary Jay - Dustin has good info.

I can't recommend going into the office enough. I did a small bump out of 12' on a house and the rules required going through a board of review because it was within a certain distance from a hill. That would have added 3 months plus a couple thousand dollars in fees. I walked in, talked to them and they waived it, approving my drawings and permit on the spot.

If you get the permit approved, all you have to do is follow the steps along the way, get each box signed off on (as Dustin says, one for framing, one electrical, one plumbing if applicable, etc). When all those boxes are checked or N/A, you call for final inspection. That's just the last formality to make sure your smoke detectors and CO2 are installed, cover plates are on, fixtures are in and you didn't change something from the last inspection until then. They sign off on the occupancy certificate which allows you to officially live in it. So don't worry about them not approving it after you do all the steps. There would have to have been some major change you did or didn't do. And then they would just give you a remedy on how to fix it.

For sure get an estimate on permit fees before deciding to go forward. They can be cheap or quite expensive. The other issue is if you're on a septic system, they look at each bedroom to determine the load on the system. Adding a bedroom usually means more people. If your system is old, you'll be in for a replacement in the $8k+ range.

Dustin Allen · Answer

@Mary Jay

They will issue you the permit based on your plans. They will have to come out and inspect multiple times throughout the process. After demo, after framing, after any electrical or plumbing then after drywall. You’ll also have a final to get the full approval that all work specified on the permit has been done according to building codes and is complete.

To get the 4th bedroom shown on the tax records, I think you might have to get the county assessor involved. Calling or walking into your building department will usually answer a lot of questions about how things are done in your particular area. Construction is much more of a local thing than a state by state. Processes can vary from city to city.