I'm Remodeling My House. Here's Why I'm Making Sure to Get Permits

I'm in the process of buying a home. As soon as I get my mortgage loan and close on the property, I will be doing some major remodeling work. I'm planning to basically gut the house and rebuild it. During this process, I'll be taking out building permits. 

Getting permits costs money and takes extra time. It is a hassle. But I'm doing it for every project where it is required. Here's why that's the case.

Not getting permits could lead to big problems with the county

Permits are required for many types of work, including constructing, demolishing, or moving structures within the property. If you don't get a permit for your work, you could find yourself facing fines and even criminal penalties. 

The specific consequences of not getting a permit can vary depending on where you live, but it's simply not worth the risk of failing to get the proper permissions before starting work. 

The work could have to be redone if it's not permitted

One of the reasons to get a permit is to ensure the work being performed on a house is up to code. If you do unpermitted work and it turns out it's not up to code, you could find yourself in a situation where the county you live in makes you redo the work. This could be extremely expensive. 

It's better to pay upfront to get the proper permissions and to ensure the work is done in a way that meets the basic safety standards. Not only will this save you from having to redo work, but it will also give you the confidence of knowing that your project was done to modern building code standards. 

Unpermitted work could lead to problems when selling the home

Finally, the last important reason I've chosen to get a permit is to make sure that I don't run into any problems later on if I want to sell the home. 

When you sell a property, the potential buyers -- or their real estate agent -- may check to see if any permits have been pulled and updates have been done. If you advertise the property as being remodeled but the buyers see that there have not been any permits pulled for the work, they may decide they don't want to buy it. 

That's because if they did go through with getting a mortgage and making the purchase and the county later discovered the unpermitted work, they could end up stuck with the fees and costs of redoing anything that's not permitted. 

I don't want to deal with all of these potential problems that could result if I didn't get permits for the work. And if you are doing some remodeling work of your own, you should also avoid these serious issues. 

You may be able to apply for a permit yourself online, although some states require licensed contractors to obtain permits for certain projects. You should ask your contractor what the process is and make sure they are getting all of the necessary permits, so you don't get into trouble later on when the contractor is long gone.