The Expert Podcast

So can you get away with not pulling a permit for your remodel? Today we're going to take a look at different scenarios where it may not be required to pull a permit and what those exemptions are. Keep in mind that if a permit is required for your particular repair remodel construction you probably want to go ahead and do it. There's a lot of consequences that come up later. It's very tempting to not pull a permit when it's required. You may think you'll get away with it. It's possible you will but there's a lot of ways that that repair work or that contracting work will be discovered later and we'll talk about that as well.

But first we're going to talk about when is it not required. How can you get away with not pulling a permit? We're going to look at an example today from Lane County in Oregon which is in the center of the Willamette Valley. This is one county's narrative and statutes for this particular subject of exemption from permits but it's very representative of counties across Oregon, Pacific Northwest and even most of the country have very similar types of exemptions that are available.

So we're going to look at first their exemption from public permits from building permits land management. The following permit exemptions apply to residential projects only. Keep in mind if you have a commercial property, a business property, government owned property, none of these exemptions apply. Exemptions for commercial projects they have those as well but that's not what we're talking about.

So exemption from permits shall not be considered authorized for any work done in a manner in violations. What this means is just because a permit is not required doesn't mean you can do work to non-standard specifications. You still have to do the work to proper building specs right. It just means you don't have to do a permit. So here's a couple examples of work scopes that are exempt from permits and then we'll talk about demolition remodel how to pull a permit and what the application looks like.

Let's take a look at what's exempt. So if it's a non-habitable one-story detached accessory structure has to be 200 square feet or less and 10 feet or less in height. Okay so if you're building a shed a playhouse um remote structure sometimes even like a man cave or she shed will apply to this exemption non-habitable meaning you can't sleep in it. You're not using it for living space. Tool and storage shed similar uses floor area not exceeding 200 feet so 10 by 20, 12 by 12, 12 by 16 will fit into that category right. If you're building something like that you do not have to pull a permit.

They talk about um fences if the fence is less than seven feet and if it's wire or chain link it can be eight feet okay except if it's going around a swimming pool. You got to get a permit. Why is that? Well that's a safety item okay. Retaining walls if it's not supporting a building and do not retain material that could impact a building. So if you're building a retaining wall just to kind of do landscaping or for a flower bed or for a raised bed you're fine but if it's holding up a building or holding wall holding up material that could go into a building not good.

If you're putting in a water tank if it's on grade and less than five thousand gallons you're good long as it's not um too tall right. It's not like a silo. Sidewalks, driveways, that kind of thing, painting, tiling, cabinets, interior trim work, um that kind of thing you're good to go. Pre-fab swimming pools right so like above ground pool there's some exceptions to that. Swings playground equipment makes sense right.

Patio and porch covers again 200 square feet and not not supported by an exterior building wall. This is important if you have a porch or deck next to your house and you're building in a cover over it and that can have some walls around it too. You're going to be okay as long as it's less than the specified square feet in this county it's 200 but you can't attach it to the house. You can't put a ledger board and start holding up that um support to the house. Window awnings won't get too much into that that's not a big deal for most people.

Retrofitted insulation again retrofitted you're not putting in new insulation in the house you're adding insulation or replacing insulation. Siding as long as it's not part of the fire protection. Porches and decks here's an important thing a lot of people like to build a deck or porch as long as it's not more than 30 inches above grade. The reason they do that is because if you build a deck higher it's a safety item. If it's not built properly and collapses somebody's going to get hurt. They figure if it's less than 30 inches you're not going to get that hurt right and they have to measure it horizontally if it's on a slope.

Gutters and downspouts you're fine. Door and window replacements as long as there's no structural member so you can take out a door frame window frame and put it in as long as you're not changing any of the headers, the king studs, the jack studs. You're keeping the same rough opening of the window. If you can fix your roof as long as you're not doing um 30% of the roof for the weight um. Storm windows frame covered non-habitable buildings as long as it's composed of rigid framework. What that means is kind of like a um an enclosure for your tractor or a temporary carport right. One of those things with the tubes and you put the fabric over the top okay. Flag poles, antenna, as long as it doesn't go higher than 25 feet.

So here you go. What about electrical? Electrical work are exempt minor electrical work including replacement lamps and we'll talk about owner occupied as well. This is another one that you're allowed to do homeowners electrical permit where you can do some exemptions and follow this flow chart for electrical mechanical permits. If you want to do a clothes dryer, stove, ventilation, cooling unit when it says portable that means it's it's not hardwired. It just plugs in right. Self-contained refrigerator same thing. You have you have a fridge you have a freezer that it plugs in self-contained.
The most important thing about appliances is if it's hardwired or hooks up to propane or natural gas or hooks up the plumbing you need a permit right. And again this whole thing is not designed to give you legal advice or um you know give you final approval for a permit or exemptions. It's to give you an idea of what you can and can't do.

What about plumbing? You can stop leaks, you can snake a drain, you can um clear out pipes. You just can't break open the plumbing system right. So that's the basic idea behind it.

What happens as far as getting a permit? Well let's do this. Let's jump to this exemption for electrical. This is a good logic flow chart for electrical and this is very similar to most of the country. Homeowners permit purchase guide start here pick all the statements that apply to you. If you own the property no stop hire an electrical contractor. This is where you can do your own permit right.

If it will be done by you or your immediate family yes keep going no you gotta hire an electrical contractor. If you're selling the property yes you have to hire a electrical contractor you can't do it yourself. If you're wiring a new home yes well then you have to do something else we're going to file this down to find out if you can get your own permit. If you're wiring more than 50 percent of the home no you don't have to call an electrician um. I'm repairing or placing a service or feeder in my home no yes well then you have to get a permit right if you're getting the drop to your house from an electrical company.

If you're adding a branch service yes. I'm adding a branch circuit in less than 50 percent of the house no keep going. I want to reconnect an existing service meaning that if you had your service disconnected by the power company to do some work if you're putting it back on you have to get a permit. I'm installing a temporary construction service yes you have to get a permit right. If you follow this all down water pump low voltage like for thermostat or speakers um you can do your own permit right. Mobile homes another one.

So a lot of cities counties will give you this breakdown of what you can and can't do on your own as a homeowner. In addition to that if you are doing your own work you can exempt from responsibility from CCB that's the licensing board in Oregon. If you own and reside in the house you can exempt yourself from liability if you're doing it yourself. You have to certify I am performing work on a property I own that I reside in. I will be my own general contractor and if I change my mind to hire a GC I will contract I will contact the GC to get liability. If I hire subcontractors I will hire only subcontractors licensed with the CCB. So there's a way you can exempt from liability for some of this.

Here's what a typical permit looks like. You have to do the job site location, description of work, the property owner if you're a contractor put your information, scope of work new remodel demo residential commercial government, what the the value of the work is um and what are the fees and it gives you a breakdown of the fees on the instruction page.

Here's some important information for doing demo work. This comes up a lot when you're looking to get rid of demolition material. If you bring it to the landfill they're going to ask you is this house built before 1978. If it was there could be lead-based paint. So if you remove or modify any painted surfaces you tear out sheetrock take out moldings right take out windows it might have lead-based paint and they might not let you put it. Sometimes you're also going to be on the lookout for asbestos were used on older homes.
So if you're doing demo you want to make sure you understand what the rules are and if you're getting a permit you want to know where you're going to put your debris. You can't just bring it to any landfill because they're going to ask you where it came from and you're gonna have to sign a form and if they find materials in what you dropped off later they can charge you a lot of money.

So what can you do without a building permit? We've already talked about that residential work exemption. Um when do I need a building permit? Adding a room if you're building demolishing or moving a carport or shed more than 200 square feet so even if you demolish something that's bigger than 200 square feet you need a permit. If you're finishing an unfinished space a garage an attic a basement finishing it out you need a permit.

If you're cutting a new window opening remember the header and the king studs and jack studs that's going to be affected by widening and opening. If you're moving or adding walls you need a permit. Part of the reason is to make sure you're not removing any load-bearing walls or putting up a new wall in the wrong way. If you're applying roofing when taking out the old roofing, building a stairway. Stairway is an important um structural item that people can get hurt on. Building a retaining wall more than four feet high. Building a deck more than 30 inches we talked about that.

Also if you do excavation if you move more than 50 cubic yards of earth you have to get a permit. Well 50 cubic yards is not really that much right. Um it's like four yards squared it's not that much so keep in mind that you have to are cubed you have to make sure that you're not moving too much dirt.

Can you draw your own construction plants? Yes you can but you have to build them to scale and you can actually hand draw them. They give you some examples of how to draw a construction plan such as this but it doesn't have to be that precise. A lot of the work especially if it's minor work can be done hand drawn. Tells you what it has to have to scale the foundation the floor plans roof and framing. If it's an interior wall may not need as much.

And what about plumbing? Plumbing is important. If you are breaking open the plumbing or drain or water system any opening of the pipes including vents you can need a permit which will probably need to go through a licensed plumber. So hopefully that gives you some ideas about how the permit process works.

How could a non-permitted job become an issue for you? If you put on an addition or a outbuilding that's bigger than 200 feet or maybe you add an interior wall if you go to sell your house later and the appraiser comes in and looks at something that obviously wasn't there the last time the house was sold or last time the house was done for tax assessment they're going to look and see if there's a permit and if there's no permit for that on file they're going to make a note in the appraiser appraisal report. It says looks like there's an unpermitted wall looks like there's an unpermanent outbuilding it looks like there was a repair to the plumbing system that wasn't permanent looks like the water heater is newer than the last permit or the electrical box and that could be a problem for selling the house.

Many lenders will not lend to a buyer if there's unpermitted work on the property which means that your buyer for your house might not be able to buy your house if they find unpermitted work. And it's very difficult to go back later and get a permit then because they can't see all the work at the various stages. When a permit is inspected there's several different inspection stages that are done to look at the job during different timelines when it's first started when the wall is roughed in if there's electrical at different points of it before the sheetrock goes on.

So you want to make sure that you get your permits if you're going to need them. Even if you think you're going to live in your house forever there could be times when you come up and you might want to refinance your house. You may want to take a home equity loan and we've seen appraiser reports come in that have discovered non-permitted work that have become an issue financially.

The other thing that can happen is if there's any evidence of the work on the outside of the house then county tax assessors do photos of homes from the air and from the sides on a regular basis. If they discover a larger footprint or something different they can come look at it and if they they look at it for valuation they charge you more taxes but if they find it's an unpermitted work they can create some bureaucratic headaches for you.

So keep in mind there's a lot of exemptions from building permits but if you do need one you want to think very carefully about not getting one. It's a pain in the neck. Make sure if you're getting a contractor to do this that your contractor actually gets the permits on their behalf because you want them to be on you know on documented on record for doing it because permits are a very important part of making sure that the work not only is done right but is done in a way that supports the ongoing value of your property.