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jcmatthews66 t1_j8xsg5v wrote

They might make you rip it all out. I would leave it alone honestly.

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pooohbaah t1_j8xuddx wrote

What's done is done. Don't make it a disaster by reporting it. The basement was always like that.

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NotWorthTheTimeX t1_j8xt7l3 wrote

Do not come clean. Inspectors should only be looking at what they’re there for or some life threatening problem. They should not be snooping.

I once bought a house at auction and later learned it had an unpermitted full bathroom in the basement. When I went to sell it the city did their required inspection and thankfully ignored it. That was the best possible outcome.

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RL203 t1_j8xwzbh wrote

Let sleeping dogs lie.

The only thing that might give me pause would be in inspected electrical work IF (and only if) you weren't confident of your work. If you were CONFIDENT with your electrical work, then I'd say you'll be fine.

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so-very-very-tired t1_j8xtvgg wrote

Odds are they will ask you to pull permits retroactively, possibly a tiny fine, and then come inspect.

Is that worth it? Depends on how confident you did things to code. I'd maybe investigate that BEFORE calling them in.

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NotWorthTheTimeX t1_j8xz6mr wrote

I know someone who bought a foreclosed home on the open market (MLS). After they bought it the city inspected it and found the unpermitted finished basement. The city made them pull down every inch of drywall for the electrical to be inspected. The owner tried to reason with them about just taking down certain parts but the city refused. After removing all the drywall the city came back and approved the electrical and said the drywall could be reinstalled. That was 10 years ago and not a single piece of drywall has been put up out of anger over the whole situation.

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Spinaccio t1_j8xx1ns wrote

You need to have a licensed electrician inspect the work, then pull a permit and redo anything that is not up to code. They are generally allowed to self-inspect, so the city won’t send their inspector for a small amount of work by a licensed person. The issue is your insurance. If you suffer a fire your insurance company absolutely will send an inspector, and if they see your work and you don’t have a permit and inspection, your insurance will not pay, even if your work had nothing to do with the fire.

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sadpanda___ t1_j8y2bfj wrote

Unless they modified something in the breaker box, this is ridiculous to think you have to pull a permit to re-wire some crap in your house.

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Guygan t1_j8xxk9k wrote

  • You are asking about a project that someone else did.
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Jewboy-Deluxe t1_j8xxkj0 wrote

It depends upon where you live I guess but where we are in MA permitting is online and every permit pulled on a house is in there. When houses are put on the market the assessor looks at their records and if there’s supposed to be an unfinished basement but it’s being sold as finished a call is made to the building inspector and he calls the realtor and then the poop hits the fan.

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sadpanda___ t1_j8y2l9j wrote

This is only a thing because the government wants their increased taxes when you improve your home

0

Jewboy-Deluxe t1_j8ybbxb wrote

Most work done by homeowners is not up to code and some is dangerous. The assessor wants the money but the inspector doesn’t want folks to die.

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sadpanda___ t1_j8ybvoi wrote

This is true as well. But IMHO, being a dumb ass and installing 20 gage wiring for a 220v stove is someone’s own personal problem and we shouldn’t have to baby proof everything for the stupidest dumb asses in society.

I also shouldn’t have to get my deck design signed off on just because Billy the dumb shit down the road built his out of toothpicks and killed grandma.

People need to have some personal responsibility. If they don’t know how to do something properly, hire it out or find someone that can help. But overregulation is not the answer.

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53romeege t1_j8xw9bg wrote

Home owners can do there own work from what I understand..did you just grab electric from a nearby box?.. I wouldn't worry about it. I did all the electric and plumbing in my own house and I;m a carpenter. Of course I do know what I am doing too. As long as you know the basics of adding receptacles you should be fine.

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Regguls864 t1_j8xxdfc wrote

I would let the contractor(s) you hire know what you have done. They might spot something that needs to be corrected. Another reason would be to protect their safety. I would hate to see someone connect to electricity that I did wrong and get shocked.

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Skatingraccoon t1_j8xt7h6 wrote

I don't know why you would jump straight to the building department in this case.

I would contact different licensed electricians in your area, explain the situation, and see if any would be willing to inspect it for you and determine what would need to be updated. You'll end up paying them for it but they aren't going to turn you in if they get out there and it's a complete wreck. You're also probably going to have to call around, since many companies are not going to want to put time and effort into checking stuff they didn't do.

Would just share a personal experience that we hired a licensed general contractor to do work but they did not get any of the required permits for the work they did. After a few calls we were able to find an electrician that was willing to come out, inspect the work they had done, replace the work that needed to be replaced, and procure a permit on our behalf. So it happens.

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sadpanda___ t1_j8y2t3t wrote

Nobody is going to sign up to do this work. They aren’t going to put their name on the line for work some DIY amateur did. I doubt you could even get someone to show up to check it out.

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usernameghost1 t1_j8xvahn wrote

I can't help you, but wanted to comment that i can't even relate to what you're saying. It's so foreign to me, i cannot imagine having these concerns.

I live in a rural part of a rural state. I built an entire home addition, doubled the size of my house, didn't tell anybody. Not only didn't tell anyone, didn't even contemplate it and wouldn't know who to talk to about it.

​

crazy world we live in. Anyway, i wouldn't say anything about it unless/until it comes up during a sale.

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sadpanda___ t1_j8y23r2 wrote

Seriously. People think they need to ask permission to modify what they own??? I thought this was America…..

I can’t even imagine “pulling permits” for some of the shit people post in this forum. Moving a electrical outlet, redoing some under sink plumbing, building a deck, remodeling a bathroom…..who is actually pulling permits for this kind of stuff?

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