03-08-2014, 08:34 AM
Nobody here believes me about Illinois....
Short course: no you will not have a fine, be forced to take it down or anything else, even if your neighbors report the un-permitted structure & it is a potential safety hazard, it could take years or decades for anything to happen.
But, most likely there will be no grandfathering, and, unless there is another "permit amnesty", you may need to upgrade to current code & pay a higher permit fee if you DO want to do anything permitted & want to make the un-permitted structure a permitted structure
Technically, if you add another structure, any un-permitted structures (that would need to be permitted) must be removed...but even that is not a given here...
If you buy an un-permitted structure that already has electric service, you will be paying a higher (than the already way high) rate.
If it is hooked up, that structure that may mean that a permit had been drawn (even decades ago) but never finaled.
Some of the properties may have had an ag electric hook up decades prior to the structure that you see in the listing
Long story to illustrate: we bought in a subdivision that has been in-town residential since it was subdivided in the 40's... but our lot was not built on for decades & there was a cow on it (this is a tiny in-town lot). They pulled a water tap from the water department for ag watering of the cow along the side of the lot.... thirty years later a house was built with water service from the front of the house....Seventy years later a pond started up along the side of the lot, for almost a year the water dept. could not figure it out...until I mentioned the cow, seems no records were kept on those ag water taps...the broken pipe was then found & the leak stopped...
Short course: no you will not have a fine, be forced to take it down or anything else, even if your neighbors report the un-permitted structure & it is a potential safety hazard, it could take years or decades for anything to happen.
But, most likely there will be no grandfathering, and, unless there is another "permit amnesty", you may need to upgrade to current code & pay a higher permit fee if you DO want to do anything permitted & want to make the un-permitted structure a permitted structure
Technically, if you add another structure, any un-permitted structures (that would need to be permitted) must be removed...but even that is not a given here...
If you buy an un-permitted structure that already has electric service, you will be paying a higher (than the already way high) rate.
If it is hooked up, that structure that may mean that a permit had been drawn (even decades ago) but never finaled.
Some of the properties may have had an ag electric hook up decades prior to the structure that you see in the listing
Long story to illustrate: we bought in a subdivision that has been in-town residential since it was subdivided in the 40's... but our lot was not built on for decades & there was a cow on it (this is a tiny in-town lot). They pulled a water tap from the water department for ag watering of the cow along the side of the lot.... thirty years later a house was built with water service from the front of the house....Seventy years later a pond started up along the side of the lot, for almost a year the water dept. could not figure it out...until I mentioned the cow, seems no records were kept on those ag water taps...the broken pipe was then found & the leak stopped...