Guy calls me yesterday, going through a divorce they want to liquidate fast. From my number crunching we're in my ballpark at a 1900 sq ft house, I'm going to check it out in a few hours. Now heres the problem. The town list this house as 1000 sq ft. He says he finished the attic, added beds and a bath, house is now 1900 sq ft. However town hall says he never pulled permits for any of this as last permit he had was to add a dormer and roof only.
So sounds to me like we got an illegal fin attic. I'm not sure how this would affect me exactly, except that if I need to resell the place as a 1000 sq ft house, I got big problems. What do I do?

Minna,

How do they know that its finished? Where I come from, as long as you don't make it a point, to point it out, they don't care. I am not sure what this means to the county or city now. I would forget about the conversation you had with the town hall and hopefully they will forget about it.

Thats not the problem. The problem is when I go to resell. If I have an illegal upstairs, I'm gonna have problem calling this a 4/2 when the town says its a 3/1, with 900 sq ft less. Buyers will note this and dont think they wont use it. It'll become my problem, never mind if the assessor shows up, hikes the taxes, and god forbid it hasnt been done to code. Theyre big on code enforcement and taxing to tears around here.

I don't know about CT, but once someone has their occupancy permit, it's pretty hard to do any "code" enforcement after the fact.

A good home inspector from the next town over should be able to tell you if the work is done to code.

Minna,

Have been through several and just recently purchased a property that was listed as a 2 bedroom on the county auditors site only to walk through the house to find out it is a 3 bedroom. Hell HUD had it listed as a 2 bedroom, but the realtor had this one listed as a 3 bedroom. You must have some really strict auditors.

Maybe code enforcement was the wrong term for those people...anyhow upon further investigation, seems he did pull permits, but failed electrical.plumbing inspection, never had inspectors back. So it presents a fixable problem. Still worth a look.

Can you advertise a property that has bedrooms in the attic with out the proper exits? I know you can't with rentals.

This brings back memories of the properties I looked at in the past. HO says I just completely remodeled the bath and kitchen and bedroom. I take a peek.. mmmmmm Looked like they used scrap wood from the dump. With out inspections HO might take big short cuts and the home won't pass an inspection.

NOt sure what you mean by "proper exits". Mine is a 1 1/2 story home which does not require stairs on the outside of the home leading up to the second floor, if this is what you mean.

I remember when I had an attic that could be a bedroom I need 2 forms of exits sense it was above the second floor. The basement also needs 2 forms of exit. Check with your local code enforcement. I never heard of a 1 1/2 story home :mrgreen:

be careful this can bite you at trying to resell with title, and appraisal issues.
see what the city wants to get them resolved LEGALLY then see if its a deal

The lack of permits is a big problem.

My suggestion is you work to clear it up. The seller pays for their mistake and they get no credit. This means you pay only the value for what it legally is now. You further deduct some value for the hassle.

It could be that the local authority will force the improvements to be taken out and the building converted back to the original state. If that is possible in this area then make sure that is priced in. At least until you get a clear decision as to what is going to happen.

Never pay someone for tomorrow's potential when you buy. If they want the future value then let them wait for the future. You pay what it is worth today and no more. If someone outbids you it does not mean they will get the possible profit. They could crash and burn.

John Corey

Agree with John's above.

Even if it's work done w/o a permit, in most cases, the municipality will allow you to bring it into compliance by simply paying a permit fee + minor penalty and meet code inspections. I don't think I've ever heard of a situation where after-the-fact work had to be torn completely out unless the person simply was a jerk to the building department first.

The guy just didnt have enough equity...He owed 160 (just refied 2 yrs ago), which was about the value of the house in its current state. Get this - the guy has some crazy mortgage for $1900/month on this, and his wife just skipped out - he cant make it on his own. I would've paid about 120 for it. I was thinking maybe a short sale but he was current. He's really screwed. I really felt for him but I just don't see any way to get him out of it.