Permit = higher tax assessment

Variance = Legal bribe

so is that your final answer?

From my experience, yes...

you are correct.

Ummm...:confused:

That's plumbing.

ANY DISCONNECT OR CHANGE IS PLUMBING.
Unless your county/city says otherwise, permit required.



KT

you have no idea how many houses had their electrical, plumbing, bath and kitchen remodel hacked up in Los Angeles and it other cities near by? Many, many are done without permits. We have torn apart and corrected many creative construction over the years that were duct tape together.

title 24 requires that if you use a non flor. light in the bath, then you must install a specific motion detecter switch that will turn itself off after a certain time. This means you can't dim your beautiful spot lights. Just think, if you are soaking in a tub, and the lights goes off, you may be in complete darkness. If one should fall and slip and get hurt, who will be sue? What we usually do is that we put up enough flor. fixtures to off set the percent of the total wattage, then after final inspection, we go in and tear then off and "do it right". Good thing is that flor design are getting a bit better, but not much. Flor lights are required in the Kitchen and all exterior lighting now. Tree huggers are making it really hard for designers and ... all of us. If everyone were to follow building code when they change their rusty exterior lights, then Home depot will have to get rid of all of their $19.99 cheap chinese made out side lights. Oh, forgot that motion lights are fine.

Jeff

Well-put.

Amazing, the CA eco-nazis tell you what lighting you put in your house?! Unreal........

If the permit/inspection process actually provided quality inspection and feedback, there would be some value to it. However, when I've dealt with the city on projects, I always find that I know more about the issue at hand than they do. It's a tax, pure and simple.

As somebody else said, it all comes down to the quality of the work being done, because permits and inspections won't save you from a shady contractor. My father in law is a contractor in central KS, and never has to deal with inspections or permits. He does very high quality work, and never has any issues. Imagine, being able to build your own 5000+ sq ft home, without anyone to answer to. That's exactly what he did.

my god, I always thought that we in the EU had overregulated things, but this insane. We basically only need permits for things done to the outside of the house. And they are even deregulating that. I would not have expected it to be that bad in the US

Yeah Peter, its similar in Canada too.
I live in a small Town, but the major cities are brutal.
FYI,

Yeah Peter, its the same in Canada too.
Even in the small town that I live in (16,000).
fyi,

I've done some remodels and additions as an owner/builder, and I must say that the local permit and inspection process, for the most part, went well. And I believe in many cases it leads to superior builds - esp. when it comes to questionable contractors.

daepp, I agree, but (and this is a huge but), I believe much of how the permit/inspection process goes is dependant on the inspector. I am currently building my home. The permit/inspection process has been very helpful, and this is the exact opposite of what I expected. My experience with the septic permit (involving permission from the Fish and Boat Commission prior to the start of construction) was a little different, but honestly do you want your new neighbor with an uncertified spetic system?

My question is this though: Even if a prospective buyer pulled the permit history of the home prior to purchase (is this a common practice), are the details of the interior such that they could tell tile and shower pans were replaced?

My entire experience with the permit process involves the city of Upland, CA. I agree the process completely relies on the inspector, but like everything else, you gotta take the good with the bad.

As for permit history, I've never had someone go back and pull such a history, but in California I know R/E appraisers are required to check that all additions are permitted, and I know the permits themselves include all the details of any remodel work. I've just not seen anyone actually go back and pull one for review.