Making past construction "legal"

[Manguy888]

When I bought my house in 2005, the first thing I did was put in a wall that turned one large bedroom into two small bedrooms. I worked with an experienced DIY coworker - we put in the framing and sheetrock, and also installed electrical outlets and wall sconces. It looks great.

I bought my house when I was 23. If you asked me then if I pulled a permit, I would have asked "what's a permit". Literally - I was that green. So fast forward ten years and we're looking into selling soon. I'm worried that there will be problems when the 'official record' of 3 bedrooms clashes with the reality of 4 bedrooms and there's no permit or inspection on record.

Is there any way to fix this past error? Could I get a town inspector to come bless it? Or do you think calling attention to this will only cause me problems.

Any advice welcome!

[ShoulderThingThatGoesUp]

If it were me I'd plan on just acting like it's no big deal. County records are wrong all the time. My first house was undercounted by 800 square feet.

[Duchess of Stratosphear]

I finished a basement and added a porch without pulling permits because the builder was a friend and I trusted him to do it right. But I've often wondered if it will come back to bite me someday. I don't mind paying the permit fees so much, but having to wait for the inspections and have them hold you up over nitpicky stuff that doesn't really affect the safety of the structure is so annoying! I think in the rural area where I live people do it all the time. I've never heard of any dire consequences, but I have no idea how this would affect selling the property--could you be held liable if something isn't to code and an accident happens? Seems unlikely, but....

[Jmoody10]

I wouldn't call attention to it.

[FLBiker]

I agree.  With something like this, I wouldn't worry about it.

To me, the main thing is not having something against code that will show up on inspection.  For example, we (briefly) considered moving our laundry room, and handling the wastewater through a subsurface greywater system.  My FIL said it was a piece of cake, but since it's against state code, I didn't want to mess with it.  He's got some stuff like that on his house, and they're looking to sell in a few years.  I'm curious to see how that goes.

[Thegoblinchief]

This really depends on your jurisdiction, but the "records are wrong" angle might be a good tack.

That said, some jurisdictions could give a shit, while others will literally force you to rip the walls down to inspect the rough framing and electrical.

Do you live in a jurisdiction with code compliance on sale? That's the kicker. If so, it would be safer to advertise it only as a 3 bedroom. There are higher code standards on a bedroom than just a room.

[Highbeam]

Advertise as three bedroom and stage one of the bedrooms as an office. The buyers, maybe even realtors, consider that they could use the office as a bedroom. If you advertise as a four bedroom then you risk the seller coming back on you after the sale.

[Greg]

Depends on a few things.  Where I live, septic systems are sized according to # of bedrooms.  So you can't have 4 bedrooms if the septic is sized for 3.

Also, each bedroom must have an "egress" window as a secondary emergency escape.  If the 4th bedroom doesn't have this, it can't be called a bedroom.  Egress windows have specific requirements as to width, height, sq. ft. of glazing, sill height etc.

Where I live a bedroom also isn't a bedroom unless it is at least 120 sq. ft. and has a closet.

Beyond that it doesn't matter, what you built is a partition wall and usually doesn't require a permit, except maybe for the electrical work.

[pagoconcheques]

Advertise as three bedroom and stage one of the bedrooms as an office. The buyers, maybe even realtors, consider that they could use the office as a bedroom. If you advertise as a four bedroom then you risk the seller coming back on you after the sale.

This.  Where I live things like this are typically advertised as a "bonus room".  In most jurisdictions a room must have both a closet and an egress window to count as a bedroom.  If one of those rooms doesn't have both those, then that one is the bonus room.