General Question: When Should You Pull Permits?

Just curious generally speaking when are you required to pull permits and when should you pull them?

I'm a pretty handy guy and am pretty comfortable to doing electrical, plumbing, drywall, etc. I've been working on a my cabin project for the last year and have pretty much taking everything down to the studs and built it back up.

Should I have been pulling permits (Obviously jurisdiction matters, but generally speaking)?

From the perspective of someone coming through every think looks clean and new, but I haven't done anything structural or done any major moves with the plumbing.

Alternatively for other folks how do you decide when a permit is "needed" (even if it is always technically required)?

I pulled a permit to add a built in pool, and when I did a 425 sq ft room addition. I try to play fair, but when I added 400 sq ft of stucco to an exterior wall, my city demanded that I pay $600 for a permit. yeah, right. I just made sure I took lots of pics documenting the installation but hell no, I didn't pull a permit.

When you are required to pull varies by locality.
When you should pull them is every time your locality requires them.

Around here we are required to pull a plumbing permit when you go beyond the trap on the drain side. So you don't need a permit to swap a sink, or faucet but you would to move it across the room since you'd have to relocated the drain line. For electrical you don't need one to swap a fixture, outlet, switch but you do to put in a new circuit. You're supposed to pull permits to install ceiling fans, I'd bet most ceiling fans that walk out of the home center don't get permits. They want to make sure the box is rated for a fan so you don't have it crashing down on your head.

I can build a shed up to 12x12 without a permit as long as I honor the set back requirements, and get HOA approval. If I run electrical to it, I need a permit. In my town, a homeowner can pull a permit and DIY electrical and plumbing. In nearby Durham, I could not.

So to answer your question, it depends.

Cities to counties vary a lot around here as do township to township. The requirements and the enforcement. This is a true story. Where my old house was is a township known for hard enforcement. I had a neighbor building a little outdoor dog house and the enforcement guy stopped and demanded to see the permit. My neighbor told him it is a dog house that just sits on the ground. He got a $50 fine and had to stop working on it and go pay for a permit. He was so mad he’s been talking about it for 15 years now.

The town I live in now is a sleepy old borough where every house is 150 years old. Last year when the inn burned down it took most of the summer to get the mess cleaned up the building filled with dirt and grass planted and we figured it would be a field forever. A younger couple bought the property and are breaking ground in the spring on a brewery and restaurant and they are moving a historic barn from across the county to supply the framework for the new building. The guy went down with his plans and applied for permits and the woman told him “Oh My, we will have to have a meeting we haven’t issued a building permit in the last 25 years and she wasn’t sure how to do it”.

The fixer up house we have is just 2 houses into the township out of the borough but we feel we live in town. I haven’t pulled a permit on anything we have done here. I figured it was all repairs except the hot tub deck and I built that free standing so that was my excuse if they said anything.

I would say get a good feel for the community you live in and how the game is played there and then don’t rock the boat.

I've been following rule of if I'm not adding square footage or doing anything structural (I don't count a header). I'm generally not pulling a permit. If I followed "JoeD's" rule I would probably spend more time getting permits than doing work.

I recall this disussion before and a few good points that I recall in pulling a permit were:

- if you intend to sell, permits for changes will be in question

- if you intend of having your property insurance company cover any losses with the associated remolded areas.