I’m very interested in a house that was recently purchased in October and is now being resold after being flipped. I walked through and was impressed by the workmanship, everything looked very nice.
I found old pictures of the house online and it had major long term water damage in one of the bedrooms. Walking through it now, you’d never even know since all the drywall and flooring was redone.
When the question came up about permits, the selling agent claims none of the work required permits. They completely redid the kitchen, 3 bathrooms, all drywall, laundry room, a staircase, replaced every outlet, replaced the electric board, new HVAC. I find it hard to believe (and backed by online research) that none of this needed permitting.
The seller claims it was taken down to the stud, but later contradicts that statement by saying it was just a cosmetic flip. They claim the didn’t upgrade the electric, or any ventilation. Is that a red flag for a house that wasn’t in good condition built in the late 80s?
The work looks very well done, but I’m worried that no 3rd party verified the work done.
Is a good inspector the next step or should I just steer clear entirely?
How to handle flipped house, no permits
byu/steakdinner117 inRealEstate
Posted by steakdinner117
12 Comments
dude this is screaming red flags 🚩 they’re literally contradicting themselves about the scope of work and claiming electrical board replacement + HVAC work doesn’t need permits? that’s complete BS
i’d personally run from this one – water damage plus unpermitted work is a nightmare combo that could bite you in the ass later when you try to sell or if something goes wrong. even the best inspector might miss stuff that should’ve been caught during proper permitting inspections
if you’re dead set on it, definitely get that inspector but also check with your local building dept about what permits should’ve been pulled. you might end up having to retroactively permit everything which gets expensive fast 💀
I’ve been through this.
Contact the county or town building inspector and ask them. Don’t give them the exact address of the property, just ask in general. If yes, they needed permits, now you have the sellers by the balls. Negotiate with them. Hard. Assume you will have to open up lots of drywall, at the very least.
If they don’t play ball, email the building inspector a link to the real estate listing showing pictures of the renovations. They’ll take it from there. You’ll miss out on this house (and will likely have dodged a bullet in the process), but the sellers will be screwed.
In my area a ton of work is done without a permit, much of it by licensed tradespeople who (along with the owner) prefer not to be troubled with dealing with code enforcement and know they can get away with it on that particular job (typically interior stuff like the house you’re looking at).
A good home inspector should be able to identify any major issues. You could also pay a licensed plumber or whoever to check out the job and determine if the work looks good.
Personally, I would walk away. Permits are important. In our community if you buy a home with unpermitted work, and you want to do new work that requires a permit, they can make the new owner retroactively permit the all the old work which can cost thousands. Finding a good inspector is subjective, as they may catch a few big in your face items, but miss the small tells, that lead to the OMG moments.
None of the work you mentioned is structural and would not require a permit where I live
Permits aside, I wouldn’t touch a flip. Without being able to see what’s behind the finishes you could be in for a world of nasty surprises.
The problem is the future unknown and the rules of your county.
In my county permits are not required if for example you remodel but use less than 4 sheets of drywall. But in my previous house, it turned out my pool installer did not get permits. The result was that the buyers lender would not approve the loan until the permits were retroactively approved. It was a nightmare. Do not underestimate the potential seriousness of lack of permits.
While you may get past these issues now, what happend when you decide to sell?
It certainly sounds like the work done was permit worthy.
You dont need an inspector you need an authority
Start with your city or county building department. This is the primary source.
Look for:
Building Department or Community Development
Permits & Inspections
Residential Alterations / Remodels
Most jurisdictions publish:
When permits are required
When they are exempt
What triggers inspections
If the website is fuzzy, call or email. Building officials answer this question all day long.
Ask plainly:
>
The electric panel (if that’s what you mean by board) and new HVAC would have required permits in my area, but nothing else in your list. Unless they moved electric or plumbing services in the kitchen or added to the existing electric or plumbing anyway.
Ask your city/county what is required to obtain retroactive permits. Some areas make this easy. In other areas, if you touch even one part of something like plumbing or electric, then you have to bring the entire rest of that system up to current code.
If it’s just the electric box and hvac that require permits, it’s probably pretty easy to bring in specialists to inspect those items during inspection (don’t rely on a generalist inspector for these things). If they meet code then just get them retro permitted after closing, if the rest of the inspection is good and the price is decent for this house.
One other thing to check, in my area you can waive some permits if a licensed plumber or electrician does the work. So might ask if that applies to any of this.
Good contractors can hide a great deal from standard visual inspections. “Caulk and paint, will make it what it aint”. A good flipper knows this. Caveat emptor. Get what info you can. If it’s unavailable, consider that a red flag.
Walk away. No permits, flipped house has red flags all over it. They probably didn’t live there, so they don’t need to disclose anything either.
A flip that is done without permits is a flip that was done to spend as little as possible to get it to look nice and get it sold. A flipper that gets permits wants buyers to know that while it looking nice is important, so is knowing that it was done right.
I would want to know why it flooded. I have delt with walls and roofs that leak from the outside and it can be a pain to identify where it’s coming from and how to fix it.