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Christel Dietzius, Coldwell Banker, do it yourself, FAR BAR, Okaloosa County, Permits, REaltor, roofing
Christel Dietzius Realtor Coldwell Banker United located in the heart of the Emerald Coast in Niceville Florida writes about PERMITS as defined in the FAR BAR Contract..
What are building permits and who is responsible to obtain and pay for them? How are they negotiated for Resale?
The easiest way to understand permits is to look at it from a new construction standpoint. It makes sense that permits would be required when a home is being constructed from the ground up. The city requires builders to pull and pay for permits for structural, gas, electrical, and plumbing in a new home. After constructed the city sends a certified inspector to insure the work was done to code. A home cannot be cleared for purchase until all the necessary permits have been satisfied. Seems straightforward enough right?
But what happens with permits when you purchase an existing home that might have been re-roofed or had windows replaced? Maybe the house has had an addition or something pretty big like a whole house generator installed. Whose responsibility is it to be sure that proper permits were submitted where required along the way?
We can safely assume the licensed and bonded contractor we hire to do work on our homes will pull permits where required, and that we personally are off the hook right? Unfortunately, assuming is never a good idea especially when you are left holding the “ball” when trying to sell your home later.
Its true open permits are discovered through the Owners Title policy search. The Title Company does look for and identify outstanding permits. Permits that remain open because a final inspection was not conducted or paid for can be easily addressed. An example is a recent client who purchased a home with all new windows. The installation company had not ordered the final inspection so the permit on file remained open. The fix was easy enough to address with a follow up inspection, closing out the permit, with no expense to buyer or seller.
However another permit issue involving a 20+ year old home under contract, with numerous disclosed improvements revealed NO permits at all on file. Purchasing a home with numerous improvements is a good thing but the buyer should question why the home doesn’t have ANY permits on file. There is nothing that will keep a house with no recorded permits from closing. But as the FAR BAR contract states, it is the sole responsibility of the buyer within a specified time frame to identify and question any permit issues. Information pertaining to permits in Okaloosa County can easily be found in the County or City records for the property.
In this particular home there was a fairly new air conditioning unit, a whole house generator, hurricane shutters and a new hot water heater. The house had also been reroofed a speculated 5-7 years before. The buyer questioned why NO permits of any kind were recorded for any of this work.
The question then became what permits if any should have been on file and who should be responsible for obtaining them. And with this particular situation details regarding permitting were further complicated because the Seller was selling an inherited home and had no first hand knowledge or documentation of who might have done the past improvements. Additionally having no real concerns about the condition of the home the Seller opted to address the FAR BAR contract Paragraph 9 leaving it blank which defaults to the 1.5% cap for the value of the home in fees associated with pulling permits to satisfy any discoverable permitting issues needing to be addressed. It was not safe to assume because there were no permits on record that it would be smooth sailing and cost free.
In the end the lack of documented permits became a bit of a head ache. The seller hired an electrician to pull an after permit inspection for the whole house generator that was installed. Lo and behold the electrician found the original permit taped behind the electrical panel! So, why didn’t the city have record of this? Could have been a clerical oversight or it was speculated that 10+ years ago when most permits were still hand written and hard filed it could have been “in” a file but never recorded “on” file digitally. Unfortunately this still cost the Seller $150. If the home inspector had only found the permit when he was doing his inspection we could have been spared the trouble!
As for the roof permit…it was explained that the city stopped requiring permits for a short period of time post tropical storm to expedite the shear number of roof jobs being done. This was likely why no permit was on file for this particular roof job. To satisfy the insurance mitigation requirement a post roof inspection was conducted by a licensed roofer for $175.
Additionally the buyer waived any requirements to produce a permit for anything else accepting other improvements As-Is.
Finally, my advice if you are a “DO IT Yourself” kind of guy… don’t think you are the exception to the rule when it comes to pulling permits. Be smart and do the right thing or it will come back to bite you later. Visit your local County or City Website to see what the permit requirements are where you live. When you go to sell your home you will be happy you did!!