buildig with permit vs no permit

[Punatang]

Something something safety

Safety trumps rights dontcha know.

[terracore]

It has been reported that somebody or somebodies is/are reviewing real estate listings that feature photos or descriptions that depict unpermitted structures and reporting them to the county.

Nobody knows who it is or what their motivation is, but it's thrown monkey wrenches into a couple of deals that were otherwise going to happen.

[punikahakaiferret]

Remember reading this awhile ago...sounds like it's happened again?

https://www.hawaiilife.com/blog/unpermit...%20website

[Punatang]

Nobody knows who it is

It was Karen.  

[jffields1969]

How does one determine if a particular building is permitted? When I check the county real tax office under the permit information section it often says that the status is "Permit Completed" when the same building permit in EPIC says that it is still open, cancelled, or even expired. It can be misleading.

[tikicarver]

Does anyone know what the County does once they find you have a unpermit house on your property?

I take it as a given they will assess it and start taxing you on it.

But since it was built without permits, there were no inspections during the build process.
They can only inpsect what they cansee, so all the stuff in the walls and in the slab , etc, can not be inspected.

I read you can apply for an "as built" permit,, but what does that entail?
do they still come out an inspect it and if everyting they can see is code compliant, they sign it off?

Also, do they slap you with penalities?

[kalakoa]

County enforcement is arbitrary, "complaint driven", and proportional to the perceived land value (roughly "distance from paved road"). If you have a gate, they need a court order to enter the premises. This is just far too much effort.

I was probably "discovered" because someone said something. The only "enforcement" was an adjustment of the assessed value. My taxes went up.

Given time and money (and "favors") it might have been possible to get an "as-built" permit. The problem with this is that an owner-builder is only allowed framing, not plumbing or electrical; most tradespeople won't risk their license to sign off on unknown work. An "as-built" also requires that every structure on the parcel be permitted or torn down. They will probably require a septic tank. Maybe they want to tear open the walls to see all the plumbing and electrical. Everything is arbitrary depending who you know.

I told County I was not going to get permits. They noted this in their files. I still qualified for the homeowner property tax rate.

There was no way County didn't know my house was unpermitted. They simply declined to enforce.

[kalakoa]

I discovered this by accident and I'm not sure it still works this way.

If you walk up to the front counter, they will check your TMK for permits, and decline the homeowner exemption if no permits are on file, the logic being that you can't possibly be "living there" without a permitted structure.

If, instead, you ask for the form, take it home, fill it out, and mail it in, it goes to a different person. They will conduct a site visit and grant the exemption if they see some evidence of "living there".

I called a couple of weeks later to make sure they got the form. The guy asked "since I have you on the phone... you have some kind of shack? Is it rectangular? How big is it?" Then he assigned a value to the shack and granted my exemption without ever visiting the property.

I miss that shack.

[tikicarver]

well, I'm on  a paved road,,   there is an existing permited small house on the property and a permited garage/workshop.
But I want to build a larger house for retrirement in the back of the property.
It would be 800 ft from the road , no way anyone could see it except from the air, both lots on either side have nothing on them. 
Hell, you can't even see the little house from the road. Guy who developed the property many years ago built the driveway that turns into a circle, so from the road you see a gate and about 50 ft of driveway and the electical line going into the property and that is it.
no way to know what else is there.

I don't mind paying taxes on a house, but the process of getting permits and inspections and dealing with trying to get electrians and plumbers to do work that you pay too much for, is what I'm trying to aviod. I figure it would add a year of time to the build to go the permit route.

sounds like the risk of the County "finding out" about a unpermited house is pretty low if it is well out of sight in the Puna area.

I guess the Cons are, you can't get insurance,, but that might not be so bad. in 25 years I never made an insurance claim on a house and
come to think of it, for 40 years neither did my parents.  

I plan to retire there, but when I'm dead my daughter would inheirt it. SHe has no plans to live in Hawaii, so selling it might be an issue,, but then
again there are so many unpermitted properties that sell maybe not a big issue...


by the way.. They will definitely make you put septic system in for any new construction. 
There is currently a law  that says all cesspools must be converted by I think it was 2030..
I saw a youtube video where some real estate agnets were talking about how Hawaii County was trying to change the law to say when any property changed
hands, the cesspools had to be converted within one year. The Realitors of Hawaii lobbied hard to stop that.  The won ,, for now...

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

do they still come out an inspect it and if everyting they can see is code compliant

One problem might be if the plumbing & electrical were covered with drywall or plywood.  They would want to see it.