Whats the deal with unpermitted homes as far as rules...
If I buy an unpermmited cabin, will i be fined ? Will they ask me to take it down ? Can i be grandfathered in ?
I see some homes that are unpermitted, that look like they are even hooked up to HELCO, is that common ? How could they get electricity if the homes isnt permitted ?
It seems like SOME stuff, nobody cares about, and SOME stuff, the government is strict about...
I dont want to sound like an idiot, just need some better understanding.
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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...
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We bought our place unpermitted and spent a lot of money bringing it up to code and it is now permitted. If I had to do it all over again, I might just leave it on a generator and not bother.
There are many places that are not permitted and every so often there's rumour that the county will go after them, but it never materializes. There have been places that have been complained about, and the county tried to do something about, but in the end, all the property owner did was outwait the county since they have limited resources to fight this sort of thing and eventually they gave up.
Me ka ha`aha`a,
Mike
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Main downside is re-sale and no bank financing.
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Keep in mind that unpermitted doesn't necessarily mean untaxed. The county really does like collecting taxes.
David
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daniel,
You mentioned no financing... but I am sure you could finance the land instead and never mention the unpermitted home..no ?
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Also no insurance.
Me ka ha`aha`a,
Mike
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quote:
Originally posted by Oneself
daniel,
You mentioned no financing... but I am sure you could finance the land instead and never mention the unpermitted home..no ?
What financing you would get - if you could get it - would be at a substantially higher rate than a conventional mortgage. The banks look at the unpermitted structure as a liability that would have to be removed in order to sell the bare land.
Understood.
I wish I had enough cash, id just buy a little off grid place and close the gate.
Debt = Slavery
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The rules have changed regarding temporary electrical. Now you MUST have a building permit and an electrical permit to put up a temp pole.
If you buy a unpermitted house and the old temp pole fails it's a real ordeal to get power again. You could get "as built" drawings and then get a building permit and electrical permit. Put up a Temp-pole (wood).or Temp permanent (6" galvanized pole) and have power established again. It could take months to re-establish your power. And then there's the Cost.
One Thing I can always be sure of is that things will never go as expected.
