FTM427
LIF Adult
Member since 1/12 1261 total posts
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Get permits or don't get permits?
We added a bathroom to first floor of our house (work is already done). At the time we thought we would never move but have recently started thinking about it so are thinking about getting permit for bathroom. We keep getting different opinions about whether we need to get the permit for an added bathroom. Has anyone had experience adding a bathroom without permits and having no issues when buying/selling? Just looking to hear others experiences (and probably confuse ourselves even more!)
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NYCGirl80
I love my kiddies!
Member since 5/11 10413 total posts
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Re: Get permits or don't get permits?
Posted by JennZ
you may need it. or future buyers will need it for certain loans. I woukd get it if you plan on selling. it will save the hassle later.
This.
I think a basement bathroom is different than one of the main floor, too. Being able to say a 2 bath vs a 1 bath (or 3 vs 1) is a major selling point. I wouldn't consider a house with 1 bath, others wouldn't consider only 2, so you may be upping your number of potential buyers.
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Re: Get permits or don't get permits?
I recommend getting the C/O (especially if it's a main floor bath).
As others have said, a basement bath you can often get away with. For example, if you have a 2 bathroom house and put a third bath downstairs, then you can just list it as a 2 bathroom house, and agents will understand that you are not representing the third basement bath. Most buyers are ok with that and just won't give it any value. Still, you could run into a stickler buyer, or more importantly, a stickler lender. But it tends to be less of an issue than something like a deck with no C/O, since that's visible on a survey and is more likely to come up on a title search.
Also less of an issue is when you have a half bath converted to a full by adding a shower. So sometimes we see houses that were 1.5 baths and then the owner makes the half bath a full. If there's no C/O for that, it's usually no huge thing because the bathroom was there to start with, and the shower was added.
But if you had a one bathroom house (say with just an upstairs bathroom), and you added a second bath to your main floor, you would want to have all of the paperwork in place when you sell so that you can represent your house as a 2 bathroom house and reap the additional value (and larger buyer pool) of having the second bathroom. This is something that most buyers and lenders will want to be a legal renovation.
So without knowing the details, it's hard to advise, but the safest bet when selling is always to get everything in order re: C/Os. And if you aren't doing it (because it's something minor like a basement bath), then you want to be upfront about it (versus having it become an issue when you are under contract and much far along in the process).
Just keep in mind that once you start the process to legalize one home improvement (such as the bathroom), all home improvements are fair game as the town comes onto your property to do the necessary inspections. For example, I had a client who recently needed to get a C/O for a sun room extension but then also needed to address a basement exterior entrance (that would not have otherwise come up). Sometimes it's worth consulting with an expediter (many of whom will do an initial consultation for no charge) to explore the can of worms that may be opened. That way, if you start going through the process of getting the C/O for the bath, you know the scope of what else (if anything) will need to be addressed and what will be entailed (e.g., is a variance required for anything) and what the ballpark cost/timeline will be.
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