Buying a house that was renovated without pulling permits and is not built to code.
My husband and I bought a home (on a land contract) in October of 2008. After we moved in, the county (which handles the electrical and mechanical permits) told us that our wiring was in danger of catching the home on fire from improper wiring after it was inspected. All of the wiring was replaced prior to us buying the home from the previous owner. No permits were pulled to do any of the wiring which caused a big problem with the city ordinance. The county forced the previous owner to repair the improper wiring in the home which has been done. Our other problem with this home is that the mechanical part of the work has not been completed and it has caused our home to be stickered as unhabitable. Our home has all new dry wall, floors, bathroom and kitchen. It truly is beautiful but the behind the scene is terrible. When the previous owner remodeled it, he never pulled permits from the city for building code reasons and added walls in places to make a bedroom upstairs. The previous owner registered this area with the city as an office but sold it to us as a three bedroom home. New windows were installed in the entire home and the window that is in my sons room (registered as an office) is not to code. It does not meet egress requirements. That creates a difficult situation for us because our son can not legally sleep in his own new room. The other problem with this home is that we never bought this home "As Is." This home was suppose to be "turn key" move in condition. Now the seller says that we bought the home "As Is." There is not a clause in our contract that states that we bought this home that way. So he has just stopped all work that the city and county has forced upon him. We never were told during the sale of this home to us that permits were not ever pulled to do the renovation and things were built not to code. If this information was provided to us we would have never purchased the home. Now we are forced to put thousands of dollars into a home that we purchased at a price that leaves no room in our budget to fix these expensive repairs. This home requires a major overhaul that we should not have to fix. For example, the insulation was never inspected before drywall was put up. The home does not have any insulation in the upstairs area and makes it difficult to sleep upstairs so we all sleep in the living room since it is in the winter months. This home was purchased in the fall before the cold weather arrived so we did not noticed the temperature change in the upstairs area until we already moved in and papers were signed. We also were told by the city and county that we were not allowed to work on the home at all while they were doing this investagation. Meanwhile, no work was being done on the home. After the head building inspector told us that we could not work on our home (because he was holding the previous owner responsible), they came back three months later and told us that we are now responsible for fixing all of this mess. All of the repairs will cost us about $20,000. This is unrealistic for the city to think that a family has that kind of money to put into a home that they bought "turn key" condition and only have 60 days to do all of the repairs. Also I would like to know why the county gave a private extension on the electrical to be done and let that expire and just waited for all of the wiring to be done at the previous owners convenience. This whole issue has hindered us from getting any kid of legal insurance for the home, which is a requirement for us to have in our land contract. Please advise what you think that we should do.
