what will happen when the city building inspector shows up at my neighbor's?
 

my neighbor is insane. his tree trimming guy is one week into building an illegal addition to my neighbor's home. the construction is going pretty fast, with him working on it 7 days a week. i peeked at the foundation and i know it is not to code.

besides being an eyesore to me, and his construction crew seeing me occasionally in the backyard wearing pajamas..wtf.i dont care.. buuuuuuttttt. my neighbor has done everything to get all the blue hairs in my culdesac up in arms. they hate him.

one lady told me she was going to call the city on monday.
what will happen? fines? he will need to tear out what he has done, right?

my bathroom remodel will be legal, with permits. hell, if my work starts soon, any inspection at my home will definately risk his operation.

idiot!

if the city does show up, it'll be bad.

Even when you are TRYING to do everything correct and legal they-the inspectors-can be a pain in the but.

Big time. They're going to make him halt construction, and get an architect to draw the thing up and get all the permits. Since he decided to be a jackhole about it, don't be suprised if they want sign offs from a structural engineer, and a geotech just for good measure.

If the foundation ain't right......*BUZZ*...game over. At that point, all choices bad.

btw, I would call the city. Absolutely. There is a reason we have a permiting process.

A neighbor of mine did something similar.

He ended up having to get a permit to remove it.

is he a lawyer?

Thats why I have wheels on my home!

they will also charge him a penalty when he does actually get a permit, usually 3X the original permit fee.
If the inspector wants (& they usually do) he can make him uncover any work that would have required inspection IE: the rebar in the foundation, unless he has photo documented the work.
But if it doesn't meet code, as you noted, he is likely screwed.

CA cities are pretty sticky about building permits, what with earthquakes and all.

He can forget about making any claim on his insurance. Once they find out the additional wasn't approved they will deny any claims. Sometimes you just have to play by their rules. I would not want to purchase a home that was built without inspections. I know a guy that wired his whole house with extension cords. They are inside the walls. Tried to sell it to me once. I just laughed.

Chicago: Resident slips the inspector a few Benjamins. Problem goes away.

Bloomington: (Based on one of my neighbors.) Resident ignores building inspectors and city. City does nothing other than revoking occupancy permit. Resident never "finishes" illegal addition (still has Tyvek as siding--for 8 years), so property taxes don't go up. (New assessment isn't issued until after occupancy permit is issued.) Stalemate will ensue until resident tries to sell, when permits + penalties are due. (Can't sell without that pesky occupancy permit.) What was the addition? Extra garage (that occupies entire backyard--probably violates some easement rules too) to house his monster truck.

When I went house shopping a couple years ago, I was surprised at the number of homes I came across (more than just a handful--fairly common, in fact) where additions were made unpermitted. It seems as if as long as it's disclosed that a room is not permitted, no one cares. "OK, I told you. Everything's now legal." At least that seemed to be the attitude of realtors (oh, I'm sorry, is that supposed to be a capital "R"?) and sellers. Personally I steered clear of that garbage. When the you-know-what hits the fan, I'm usually the guy left holding the bag.

Funny, that's the way things are in Morocco, as well. I visited a few years ago. I asked the tour guide why all the buildings seemed half-built. Inevitably it appeared as if the top floor was still being constructed with rebar sticking up out of the slab roofs. The guide informed us that as long as a house is not considered completed, it is not yet taxed (or perhaps it's taxed at a different rate--I forget exactly). So everyone just leaves rebar sticking out of the concrete roofs to avoid taxation.

Yep all of the above. Most likely they'll order an immediate cessation of work and depending on the inspector and how the guy reacts, they'll make his life anywhere from "expensive and inconvenient" to "downright hellish". IIRC they can condemn the unpermitted work and forcibly demolish it, but I've never heard of that actually happening - only that they'll make them rip out work that is not to code and they make life very difficult and expensive for such persons.

Guess I was lucky, because all the building inspectors I dealt with were decent guys, if rigid and "no nonsense" in attitude. I used to live across from Jack Nicholson, whose house was on a rise and hard to spot from the street. He started a major remodel without permits, was busted and had to reverse all the work and start over. So even money and power don't get you past the permitting process.

In my area, if caught, the offender would have to demolish all non-permitted construction, pay fines, get permits, and start over.

You should call the city on him, so they get there before the work is finished and while the deficiencies are obvious. Or, get a neighbor to do so - but now, not in a month. Reason - for all you know, the next [edit: UN-] permitted addition he does may affect you directly - zero setback and two stories overlooking your backyard, massive eyesore, berlin wall, etc. Even if you are too easy-going to be bothered, that sort of thing makes your house less desirable and thus costs you value. Plus he sounds like a jerk whose chain needs pulling. Also, plant your own privacy and shade trees, some fast-growing variety, in 5 years you can have a middling-decent bit of tree there.

I have a client who just bought a house. They got a permit to re-roof it. Turns out, it was red-tagged in 1984 for tons of unpermitted work. The new owners now have to do about $200,000 in repairs and upgrades, starting with an entirely new foundation.

How does that not show up during escrow?