Has anyone worked with City officials to regularize an illegal construction?
Answers:
It's fairly straightforward; you get in touch with the city to obtain the permit, they send out an inspector, and one of three things happens:
#1: they take one look, and say "absolutely not." This is very likely with things that are not just permit-less, but obviously against code. A good example might be a room addition that comes too close to the property line, has a bathroom without proper sewage venting, and is leaning to the left. All of these can be seen with the naked eye.
#2: they take one look, and say "okie dokie." This is only likely for certain small things, that are obviously within code but for which a permit was never obtained. There are very few things that fall into this category. A good example might be replacement windows.
#3: they take one look, and say "okay, you're going to need to open the walls up so we can look at the electrical and plumbing, and schedule someone to look under the house, and get a structural inspector in, and you need to tell us who did the work so that we know their reputation and whether or not they're licensed." This is the most common response for a room additions of any complexity, and if you can't meet their requests, get ready to hear "no way can we give you a permit, and now that we know about it, you need to bring it up to code at your own expense."
Buying a house with non-permitted additions is always a risk, no matter what the realtor says about it being "easy "or "no big deal" to get it permitted. Make the issuance of the required permits a contingency of the sale, and get the inspectors out there well before you close.
Final note: California code inspectors are among the toughest in the country. Good luck.
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