Need a Christmas list

@Stan Galat posted:

It's a tax for improving a place - just like a sewer connection (which can cost upwards of $5000 in this part of the world) is a tax to support the municipal wastewater system.

It's not JUST a tax for improving a place, for larger renovations it's a way to keep track of increased valuations for yearly property taxes ..... taxes by property value is a bit of a sore spot with me

As an aside, we just finished a fairly major addition/renovation. Added/enlarged a second floor Master bedroom (can we still call them that here?), gutted a main floor plus a 2nd floor and added a 3rd bathroom. New metal roof. Plus renovated the kitchen, all new flooring, some new windows, removed a couple of small walls for a touch of open concept, a lot of new LED can lights etc.

The original permit for the addition took 7 months from the City at the beginning of COVID where I honestly think they were trying to not issue permits for a few months. We permitted and had a license electrician do all the wiring, we're in a 1908 home but thankfully, all the old knob and tube is long gone. I did what I know how to do and GC'd the trades for the rest.

Inspections were superficial and seemed more for optics and fund raising than safety. When we had to add main floor wall studs to carry the new third floor weight, they called for 2 vertical 2X4 that we sistered to the existing wall studs. I called the inspector, sent him a picture to his phone, told him the  drywaller was standing by and he said go ahead and close it in, no inspection. We had to add metal support posting below that in the basement to carry the load, same thing; I sent him a photo of the basement floor opened up, footing in and he said great, close it up.

My final inspection was in person, young guy. I had to have proper 3-way smoke detectors with that yell and flash lights at you in the bedroom and 10 feet away in the hallway, doors had to be on the bathrooms and all flooring down. He spent less than 1 minute looking around and stayed for 10 minutes talking about the property and how he'd like to own a house like this one day. There really was no inspection.

The City was more interested in how much money I was spending so that they can up my yearly reaty tax. With recent massive increases in property values around here, taxes are probably set at half the actual value of homes as no one could afford their house taxes if they set them at actual values.

@WNGD posted:

As an aside, we just finished a fairly major addition/renovation. Added/enlarged a second floor Master bedroom (can we still call them that here?)

In my experience, calling it the Mistress Bedroom is fraught with peril...

I'm happy I live in the country, far away from the municipal offices.  And the less the town knows what I doing, the happier I am.  I've only had to have one permit in the 44 years we have lived here - for the construction of our new garage - because I hired a company to construct it.

Otherwise, I have just happily avoided any sort of bureaucratic bungling.

I don’t think the “inspector’s” inspect anything in my town. They show up, give a cursory glance at the project, and then use this as an opportunity to see what other improvements were made to the property. They then check this against their records to force you to get permits for projects that were done off the books.  I see it as nothing more than a revenue grab.
When I put an extension on my home 20+ years ago, the only thing the inspector asked about was my pool and pool house. He didn’t even look at anything in the addition, but told me if I didn’t get permits for the pool house, I would not get a CO for the addition.  In theory, inspections should be good, as it keeps things safe. The reality is definitely different.

Menonite pool house, came on a trailer.

When I moved to Baltimore in 2004 I figured it would be similar to Hartford, but 6x bigger. What I found was a revelation. I moved into a near-downtown neighborhood with all the trappings of a real city: many bars, good restaurants, train station, a light rail. There was a world class symphony orchestra, a movie theater and two opera companies within a few blocks of my place. Plus many excellent museums. the Maryland Institute College of Art and Johns Hopkins' music school: right there. I rented a 800-sf 1 bedroom apartment with 2 marble fireplaces, 12-foot ceilings and 8 huge Palladian windows on the 3rd floor of an old building for $920 a month (which was about $250 more than the mortgage on the Hartford house I was selling, but I figured I'd splurge).

I thought I had arrived.

I started looking for a place to buy with the loot I extracted from selling the old house: 64,000 tax-free smackaroos! More cash than I had ever seen or imagined at the tender age of 38! To me, that was 2-3 year's worth of money! It still is.

There was an 8-foot wide rowhouse on the alley behind my work. They were asking $140k, and the place needed everything. What bothered me most was how uneven and creaky the floors were. It was made of bricks, but felt like a treehouse built by 13 year olds. Eight blocks south, in Chinatown, I walked through a much larger building. This one had three apartments and they wanted $280k. It was seen as a smart buy because those blocks were due for revitalization and there was speculation some big developer would be getting in, making any holdouts rich.*

I passed on both, thinking they might be slightly above my skillset. Within a year I noticed a trend: buildings were collapsing all over the city, and it was considered normal. There were stories there. When I looked into the engineer behind several of the collapses (a former city employee and ex-felon) I struck a rich vein. Eventually it led to a murder-for-hire plot and a wrongful conviction, among other notable details.

But at base it was simple: the building inspectors were incompetent and corrupt.** Most things were built by junkies, without permits, and those who obtained permits faced probable shakedowns.

There were other things. Most of the well-meaning people doing construction did not know what they did not know, which drove tragedies.

I had moved to a Third World city ruled entirely by idiots. 

All this to say: I still support zoning law and building codes. In theory, they're a substantial part of what separates the housing stock in this country from the sheet-metal-and-tarpaper mazes that moat every metropolis from New Delhi to Nairobi.

But in practice?

Fellas, we need a lot more practice.

==

*At this time, said redevelopment is still pending.

**Buildings continue to collapse in Baltimore City with what I regard as alarming regularity.

@Bob: IM S6 posted:

I'm happy I live in the country, far away from the municipal offices.  And the less the town knows what I doing, the happier I am.  I've only had to have one permit in the 44 years we have lived here - for the construction of our new garage - because I hired a company to construct it.

Otherwise, I have just happily avoided any sort of bureaucratic bungling.

I'm a believer in as few permits as necessary.

But if you've done plumbing or particularly electrical without a permit and there's an issue, flood or fire, don't kid yourself....you don't have insurance.

Not really.

You don't always need a permit for electrical or plumbing work.  You just need a certified electrician or plumber to do the work for you.

@Bob: IM S6 posted:

Not really.

You don't always need a permit for electrical or plumbing work.  You just need a certified electrician or plumber to do the work for you.

That’s not always the case, depends on local ordinances.

@LI-Rick posted:

That’s not always the case, depends on local ordinances.

In Hellinois, you don't need a license to do your own work. Only if you hire yourself out, or if you hire somebody to do the work is a license required.

Chicago may have a different set of ordinances, but that's how it is everywhere else in this state.

Well, obviously, we are all talking about our local jurisdictions/towns/etc.

Local regulations will vary - just be aware of them.

@Bob: IM S6 posted:

Not really.

You don't always need a permit for electrical or plumbing work.  You just need a certified electrician or plumber to do the work for you.

Or, like me, do it all yourself, and pay a certified electrician to look over your work and get the inspector to come and put a sticker on it. Sometimes, I do all the work and get the inspector myself(2nd floor rough-in). I needed the electrician when I changed out my 60 amp service for 200. We did it together, didn't cost much either, it was done in a couple hours.

Thankfully, I have two local guys for electrical and plumbing.  They do my stuff when they can, and usually it's a 'friendly' payment method.

I used to do a lot myself, but I find it's just as easy this way.  I have done all the major stuff over the years, and we're just into minor repairs or updates, etc.