Stop Work Order after house has been completed

[Jason Carter]

Ok so I just got into flipping houses, so I am very new at this. I made several mistakes that cost me a couple of thousand dollars and left even when I finally got the house completed. I learned from those mistakes and was ready to move on to the next house after selling my for flip, or so I thought.

right now I am having a nightmare trying to put this house up for sale. You see, I finished the basement without any permits, and for some reason I though it was a good idea to hire a contractor to pull a permit just for the gas line so it could get inspected. During the inspection, which the sanitary company does, the inspector asked several question and came to the conclusion that at least the bathroom had to be new and requested a permit to be pulled and gave me a stop work order. I was fine with that and contracted a licensed plumber to pull the carpet, drill to get a permit and get it inspected. however, the next day there was another stop work notice from the county which listed all types of permits to be pulled before the could inspect and lift the stop work.

The main floor did not need any permits since no walls were added, and everything was cosmetic, but the basement has new walls, electrical, and the bathroom was existing but moved to another location. Anyway, at this point I think I have all the permits pulled and work inspected for the plumbing and gas, which left me close to 10k in the whole. I was trying to play off that the everything in the basement was existing, and that I only moved an existing bathroom. But I just realized that the inspector will ask to open the other walls and discover that the partitions are new, and ask everything to be re-done.

unfortunately, this happened at the end when everything in the house is complete, painted and cleaned. The water, electricity, gas is on and working properly. I am not sure the best way to resolve this. I am scared of putting this up for sale since I don't know if the stop work order is something that can be pulled on the house. There is no more work to be done, so the work order does not affect me in completing the house, but if I want to get it lifted I would have to re-do the basement and be at the mercy of the county. So far they have not inspected anything and just issued a stop work order since the sanitary company notified them that I may not have permits for new work.

I am also on a hard money loan, so one option is to borrow money and pay off most of the hard money loan and tell them I plan to live here, and hold it for some time and sell it later on, but not sure if that will solve anything. I am really just looking for suggestion and advice. I know the easiest, most expensive, option is to do what is being required, but perhaps there was a way around this.