Spring is the season of renewal. In today’s economic climate, some folks who were once thinking of purchasing a new home, may instead now be looking to upgrade or renovate their existing home. When thinking about renovations, first and foremost make sure that you do it right.
Make sure you know who your contractor is. Do your due diligence. Don’t pick a contractor on price alone; make sure your contractor has good and solid references. Find out how long the contractor has been in business. Check to make sure that the contractor is licensed by the appropriate governmental authority, and check with the Better Business Bureau to see if any complaints have been lodged against the contractor. Don’t forget to confirm that your contractor has both liability and workers’ compensation insurance.
Once you’ve selected a contractor, continue to do it right. No one likes to pay higher property taxes, but by failing to get the proper building permit or appropriate certificate of occupancy may cause you problems down the road. By failing to get a building permit and/or a certificate of occupancy, you may not discover problems with the project and may be forced to do additional work when the time comes to sell your home.
Most lenders and attorneys for purchasers insist that a property has certificates of occupancy for all structures that require them. If you don’t have a certificate of occupancy when you go to sell your house, you may be forced to obtain a building permit, undergo inspections, and obtain a certificate of occupancy in order to complete the sale. This can be a real problem if your contractor did not do a proper job or did not build the project to code. Even more disconcerting, your contractor may have built a job to code at the time the project was built, but the building code has since been changed. If the building code has changed, you don’t get “grandfathered in” for complying with the old code, because your project must be built to comply with the code that is in effect the day you apply for your building permit.
Although you might feel that you are saving yourself time and money by avoiding the permit process, in actuality you may be causing yourself more problems in the long run. Make sure you use reputable contractors, expediters, and attorneys to help you along the way.
If you have any questions, please call or email Steve Taitz.
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