That's actually a really good 8dea to say it's not actually a living space.. he could say it's an office with an attached kitchen.

Ingress and egress there's only one way out.... That's actually my biggest concern about the entire apartment he has built.

I thought so too... But there's honestly no issues with the entire apartment in any capacity. He freaked out last year when the driveway cracked he thought there might be foundation issues but three separate companies came and did a bunch of testing on his property and they found absolutely zero foundation issues. They even came and look inside of his apartment in the main house and like it was fine.

There is not....he had it checked last year when the drive way cracked. That was ruled normal with no need for concern by three different companies who looked at the driveway and foundation of the house

The entire living space is probably about 700 ft

How would I find out if the county has a straight code enforcement I honestly don't even know where to look. My plan is to try to get a retroactive permit I'm just not sure where to start

My relative dug out the entire crawl space the ceilings are a standard height of a normal house

There are no issues...they've lived in it for years.

It's fully finished with working plumbing a separate electrical panel HVAC gas and all that's separate from the main house.

It's on them for sure ... I just feel bad and I'm trying to find information to help them

Yeah it's fully finished with working plumbing a separate electrical panel HVAC gas and all.