Where's Your Permit?

This is an unfortunate case that happens all the time. These were not our clients, but they later contacted us when they decided to move into a larger home. They were unhappy with their previous agent, who did almost no research for them and rarely gave an opinion about anything. When they started describing their current home, we quickly realized which house it was. We had previously shown this house to another client who walked away from it after our research. The home has an unpermitted Arizona room.

Unpermitted construction happens all the time. Some people feel like it is too much hassle to get a building permit. They just build and hope that nobody ever finds out. As it turns out, this particular room was built prior to 1999. The house had since been sold at least four times since then and no one ever disclosed that the room was not permitted.

We told these folks who to contact at the county to get an as-built permit, which they would need in order to sell the property. We later received a call from them saying that the County estimated several thousand dollars for the permit, and that the room might have to be retrofit to meet current code. We surmised that the county representative was confused, thinking that the room was recently added. When you get an as-built permit, the structure has to meet the permitting rules that were in effect when the structure was built. We went back to the old MLS records and were able to prove that the structure was built prior to 1999, which saved a lot of money and grief.