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Subject Expert
Well first question, do you have a real loss that needs recovered?
For example, is the city forcing you to rip it out and redo it? Or are you just upset that they weren’t permitted?
Suing sellers is always hard because unless they owned the home since it was built, it’s hard to prove that they knew about it (or did it).
Never heard of anyone getting burned for non-permit work. Shitty work should’ve been caught by your inspection.
Good luck with that. You bought it as is. You need to prove that they actually tried to conceal something. For instance they tried to cover up water damage from leaky pipes that they moved. Permits are public record and you should be able to see the fact that the bedroom was not permitted. That doesn’t mean they committed fraud. That does mean you had a crappy realtor and you didn’t do a good job on your due diligence. Lesson learned. Better luck on the next house.
- master Bathroom renovation where they moved pipes and washer/dryer around
- enclosed porch to create new bedroom room with separate AC
- added deck
Subject Expert
The new bedroom seems like the biggest issue. Did they advertise it as a 4 bedroom when only 3 bedrooms were permitted (for example)? Did you not look it up in the county’s records to see that it was only recorded as a 3 bedroom? What about the square footage? Did they claim that patio square footage as part of livable space? How did that not come out in the appraisal or in your home inspection? Did you have a realtor? I think you can sue the seller but also sue your realtor, sellers realtor, and your home inspector if they didn’t figure this out. An unpermitted bedroom is something you can figure out on the internet in about 3 minutes. Find a real estate attorney and sue everyone involved.
A lot of people do unpermitted work because of the hassle of the process. It takes a long time and there may be unlicensed contractors that genuinely do a great job but because of the fact they they are not licensed, they obviously do not get a permit and due to this, the work is cheaper but it still gets done. Like somebody asked above, are you having issues or are you just pissed? How did they advertise it? For example, if they posted, “Brand new AC unit” and if they didn’t disclose that a permit was actually pulled, then you would have evidence there.
What potential loss are you trying to recover? We had an issue with the electrical panel when we moved in and discovered it had been recently updated but wasn’t up to code. Our realtor spoke with the seller’s realtor and they agreed to cover cost for digging up the concrete to get it up to code, about $12k worth of work - we did bring up the possibility of taking legal action so you might need to go that route. I was specifically worried that it wouldn’t be safe so we had a couple of electricians out to inspect and the seller’s realtor hired the first one - when the seller’s realtor was here the electrician basically lied to my face and said everything was fine but then when the realtor left briefly the electrician admitted there were a lot of issues with the panel not being up to code. I detailed out everything by email and sent to my realtor.
Bottom line - you can and should request any costs associated with getting inspections and rectifying after the fact. Definitely document every interaction with a professional and for peace of mind unlicensed doesn’t necessarily mean unsafe, talk to your realtor and get a few opinions on any work that needs to be done.
Didn’t you buy the house as-is? It’s pretty obvious when a porch is converted to a bedroom and has a separate AC during a walk through? I just had my master bath remodeled for 20k and they didn’t pull a permit. I can guarantee a buyer would still want the updated bathroom over the outdated one. Moving a few pipes around for bathroom and laundry? Do you think majority of people find someone that will pull permits for that type of minor work?
The question here is to look at your contract. Which clauses survive closing? I highly doubt you have much recourse, but you need to look at that.