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Translation of Jane's and Kapohocat's conversation. Due diligence trumps .gov oversight. As such I believe any purchase of a dwelling needs the buyer to have an inspection by a trusted contractor due to the monetary size of the purchase. I personally wouldn't have an issue with buying a non-permitted dwelling depending on the inspection (there's tons of stuff out there that's just plywood thrown up but also some quality craftsmanship of being that weren't "licensed").
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The idea of penalizing non-permitted buildings will be interesting to see how it plays out. In one instant, in Waipio valley, I think there is only one or two buildings in the whole valley that have permits at all.
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My husband and I bought our home in 2005. It was built in 2001. In 2007 we notice some cracks that were minor at the stress points of doorways.
Now we can see studs through the giant cracks in the walls. The back room is sinking and the pad is cracked. None of the doors shut properly except the front door. Tony has shaved them 3 times to make them fit...now they don't shut again.
The Japanese company that bought many, many lots here in HSRE cannot be found anymore. The builder says he was just doing what he was told. The realtor cannot be located. The prior owners do not respond. The architect wiped his hands. Lawyers want money up front - period. The DCCA has not responded to us yet after we filed our case with them years ago.
They cleared the lot here and rolled all the albezia green waste under and built our home on top of it. Now it is decomposing and the house is sinking.
I wish we had one of those nice unpermitted homes now.
Carrie
http://www.sapphiresoap.etsy.com
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future..." Galadriel LOTR
Carrie Rojo
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future..." Galadriel LOTR
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"I believe any purchase of a dwelling needs the buyer to have an inspection by a trusted contractor"
I thoroughly agree with this statement & we did have our house (that was built with permit in the 70's & had a fully permitted addition in 2000) fully inspected by one of the highly recommended inspectors....
BUT if a contractor has done work within the walls & it looks good, there is NO way for an house inspector to know whether the work was done to code (or even best building practices) & even they must rely on the permitting agency to do their work correctly..... unfortunately, the contractor that did the addition did not, nor did the county, and we found this out at the earthquake of 2006..... structural framing of doors & windows was not done (thats right, there were no jack studs & headers)! & we did make sure that the addition work had been permitted & finaled.... Upside, we replace all of the windows & doors with new, mo'betta ones, downside, we replaced fairly nice new doors & windows that we believed had been installed correctly. We have since found out that the electrical work had not even been inspected, but was finaled, so we are redoing all of that!
So here, the buyer must be so fully aware that weird things happen & permitted buildings do not always equal work done to code, and that inpsectors can only inspect what they can see....
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I bought an unpermitted home last November. I am bringing it up to code, and hope to have it finalled this month. I think that I will get about $1.50 in increased value to the house for every $1 I have put in. The house was basically well built, but had some crazy things wrong with it. All the electrical wire had to be taken out and replaced. 50 concrete footers under the house had to be replaced. Now I can get insurance and am confident that the house will not fall down in an earthquake.
Aloha,
Rob L
Aloha,
Rob L
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quote:
Originally posted by Carey
"I believe any purchase of a dwelling needs the buyer to have an inspection by a trusted contractor"
I thoroughly agree with this statement & we did have our house (that was built with permit in the 70's & had a fully permitted addition in 2000) fully inspected by one of the highly recommended inspectors....
Do NOT have a
contractor do the inspection. There are a few good
licensed home inspectors with no allegiance to any contractor. Most of the home inspectors were in the Bldg industry previously. The one I worked with previously on a project had about 25 pages of items and notes on a house that I thought wasnt in bad condition to begin with. Very indepth they go! Some of the items were manini but some could led to larger issues later on. Overall the clients purchased the house but did have an idea of the some of the potential problem areas.
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I used one of those home inspectors who I would swear took a bribe from the contractor. Knowledge is power. At least I've learned a lot about how not to build a house.
That's a shame, jackson.
While on subject of inspectors, I have nothing but praise for Jeff Lux, Housemasters. He lives in HPP. He gives a thorough inspection a d doesn't gloss over anything, is willing to explain everything, and offers a warranty.
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I second the recommendation of Jeff Lux. He found things we would have had no idea about, including a way-dangerous wiring issue. Also gives you good advice along the way if you tag along.
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Cat, I agree & we did have a licensed, bonded & insured home inspector, and did get a 45 pg (23 pages double side) report.. But every Inspector we interviewed prior to buying had stated that they cannot inspect inside the inside structural condition of walls, and that they do rely on permitted structure meeting structural code for the time they were built....(we interviewed before even finding a home, and all had stated that with un-permitted structures, there was no way of telling structural deficiencies within a covered wall without removal of the wall cover....something none of them did, which is why we only looked at homes with permitted work...)
My statement is to verify that here, even finaled, permitted work may not have been inspected & to code...something we had not known until after purchase, and something that is NOT covered in a licensed home inspection... BUT should have been covered PRIOR to the permit being finaled for the work on our house (and we have heard of others since that did not have inspections on permitted work... esp in the late 90's & early 2000's) & so I warn... believe me, as it was a shock to do the due diligence & have bought a house where the finaled, permitted work had windows without headers & doors without jack studs....
