Should I Get a Permit?

I'm jumping around a little while I get my feet wet with blogging again, but I've had a lot of conversations lately with people about if getting a permit is necessary or if it's not worth the "hassle." 
Before the pandemic, I was a home inspector. So, seeing work and hearing from homeowners about skirting the inspection process makes me incredibly nervous.  Are there things that can be done without an inspection?  Of course!  But those are largely determined by your municipality.  Are there things that should always have a second look? Yes!  I also know some municipalities don't really have a permitting process.  For those areas, please get a second set of professional eyes -sales inspector, another contractor, friend who has worked in facilities management and is really knowledgeable- to double check what is happening in your home. 

What Does a Permit Do?

Generally speaking, a permit pulled by a professional contractor will protect you and your investment.  Even the best contractors miss things, so having a second set of eyes come to double check that each system is safe is like an extra insurance policy on your home.  It can also affect your insurance policy: most insurers have a DIY threshold that covers certain work performed under permits and will not cover damage caused by homeowners.  So, permitted work can protect you here as well.  

That second set of eyes also is aware of all relevant code changes and why these were made.  So, your inspector can answer questions about changes in a different way than some contractors.  One example is that in 2018 code shifted to require smoke detectors inside all bedrooms, not just in adjacent hallways.  This simple change can help in situations where hearing loss, deep sleep (I can sleep through a smoke detector behind a closed door!), or other noise drowns out the sound of some detectors.   

How Can a Permit Help My Project?

Permitting timelines are largely dependent on different municipalities, but when a permit is pulled, it has an expiration.  So, a contractor who pulls one knows first-hand what the deadline is on the project, and often knows that their deadline affects other deadlines as well.  It is a cost that can help keep a project accountable for getting work complete.  It also ties their name, license, and reputation to a project.  

If a project does go south, having a permit on file is the best -and sometimes the only- way to give you legal recourse.  It provides contractor name, licensing, and insurance information to cover their work, and allows your insurance to pursue additional financial reimbursement on your behalf.  I also build into every contract that I keep the final 10% of payment until work has passed inspection.  If a contractor denies this arrangement, I take that as a pretty big red flag. 

What If I Didn't Get a Permit?

If you've done major work without a permit, and you want to get it checked, call your permit office!  Ours is under the "Department of Safety and Inspections."  Things can happen in emergencies that require work first and permits later.  It happens!  

When we did our kitchen renovation, we did unpermitted work for our gas line that was a need-to-do-NOW.  Our old gas stove ran through our inaccessible crawlspace, and when we opened the crawlspace at the beginning of the renovation, we were met with a significant amount of gas from a hidden leak.  

*If you ever smell gas when you know you shouldn't, call your gas company!*  

We shut the gas off, shut our power off for a little while (it was that bad), and at 7pm on a Friday... we called my Father-in-Law.  As someone who has worked in facilities management for a very long time, he had personal relationships with professionals and experience servicing lines that we just didn't have.  He came and removed and capped the line, saving us upwards of a thousand dollars in emergency gas line work.  

I called the permit office that following Monday.  They were very understanding of our situation and came to check the work quickly.  No harm, no foul.  They are called the "Department of Safety and Inspections" for that reason: their goal really is to keep your house, investment, and lives safe. 

Only a few weeks prior to our gas line leak, a bad installation of a dryer caused a house explosion in our neighborhood.  The seriousness of our situation wasn't lost on any of us.  Now, that gas line is gone back to our main shut off from the elimination of our gas water heater, and we have always been sure that the work we are doing is safe for our family.