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Finishing bathroom: Need permit?

Cloned

Cloned

Active Member
SuperFanatic T2
Oct 13, 2009
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When I bought my house in Ankeny the basement was finished except for the bathroom. Now getting around to finishing the bathroom and wondering if I need to go through the permit process? The only thing there is the studs and drains so would be finishing plumbing, electric, exhaust, etc. Electric and plumbing will be done by someone who knows what they are doing (not me).

Do I need to go through the permit process? What is the downside now and in the future if I don't get the permit?
 
Cloned said:
When I bought my house in Ankeny the basement was finished except for the bathroom. Now getting around to finishing the bathroom and wondering if I need to go through the permit process? The only thing there is the studs and drains so would be finishing plumbing, electric, exhaust, etc. Electric and plumbing will be done by someone who knows what they are doing (not me).

Do I need to go through the permit process? What is the downside now and in the future if I don't get the permit?
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The downside to getting the permit is your tax valuation may increase.

The downside to not getting a permit is that it may be illegal (if caught).
 
Someone should make this a poll.

Did you pull permits to finish your basement including a Bathroom?? Yes or No
I would bet the outcome of that would be Majority No, But who knows..
 
If I was buying your house I would expect you to produce the papers. I was just talking to a friend about this exact situation and she ended up having to do a bunch of rework because the previous owner cut a few small corners. The cost is very small and you'll sleep better.
 
HandSanitizer said:
Someone should make this a poll.

Did you pull permits to finish your basement including a Bathroom?? Yes or No
I would bet the outcome of that would be Majority No, But who knows..
Click to expand...

No, I didn't. :smile:
 
cytech said:
Can you find someone to do it without getting a permit yes. But technically you are required to have one
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This.

And I don't understand the advantage of getting a permit if you want to sell. Eventually, we all will sell a house or our house. Increasing your assessed value does not mean your market value with increase or decrease. Nor does that warrant getting a permit.

I wouldn't get a permit - all you are doing is telling the government to increase your taxes.
 
No matter who does the work a permit is supposed to be obtained...but I didn't.
 
Here is a question....
Lets just say you have Farm Bureau for Home Owners insurance.

What if a Fire took place in your house? Would you get coverage for your basement if you didn't pull a permit? What about water Damage? I suppose that is a loaded question that could only be found in the 75 Page manual of my manual?
 
CyPride said:
This.

And I don't understand the advantage of getting a permit if you want to sell. Eventually, we all will sell a house or our house. Increasing your assessed value does not mean your market value with increase or decrease. Nor does that warrant getting a permit.

I wouldn't get a permit - all you are doing is telling the government to increase your taxes.
Click to expand...

Depends on the buyer too though, if you are selling. If I see that major work was done recently in a house, new plumbing, electric, etc, I would definitely ask if they obtained permits for that work. I've seen enough houses to know that some times, people don't get permits because they don't want to follow the codes. Permits are there to protect you as an owner if you hire people to do the work for you. To make sure they are doing it right. Permits are there also to protect the next owner of that house. So you can at least hope they followed the codes and did the job right. Not everything is a conspiracy to take more money out of your pocket.

We redid our kitchen in 2004. I called my city and asked about permits. As long as we weren't running new electric or new plumbing, just replacing the existing layout, then I didn't have to get any permits. You might be surprised how easy it is to work with some municipalities building departments. They are a great wealth of information if you just talk to them. I've even had one inspector basically walk me through the next step of a patio I was doing, to make sure it would pass on final inspection. I know they aren't the same with contractors, but to homeowners, they seemed pretty helpful and informative. It could just be my town though.
 
The things you have to get a permit for are rediculous. Technically you are supposed to get one for something as little as replacing a hot water heater. I'd say I wouldn't sweat not getting one. I'm going to refinish my basement this summer, another thing that technically you need a permit to do but my thinking is it's already listed as a finished basement (low grade) so while the grade of finish may increase it's still going to be a finished basement in the end so not going through all that BS.
 
I have at least partially finished basements in two houses and never considered getting a permit and never had problems when selling the house. I am now in the process of finishing the basement at my current home and have no intentions of getting a permit, but will make sure I follow the code(within reason) when doing the work. Taxes is Waukee are already way too high....I'm not going to make it worse by having some nimrod come out and watch my work as I go and then report my work so our fine government decides to tax me even more.

I have a neighbor who got a permit to put a deck on the back of the house. The building standard for building decks is borderline stupid. The footings/support requirements they have made him build a deck you could park a semi tractor on without any problems. Why spend more money permitting only to spend more money making things up to standards that are overkill. Although building on the outside of the house is different because they will snoop around. That's why I poured a patio.....:cool:
 
You're probably safe with a small bathroom, but in some municipalities they are ruthless. I had a friend who finished his own basement in Waukee and someone actually ratted on him.

He got nailed with a $500 fine, but didn't have to change anything. Considering the value of keeping them out of your basement and the cost of the permit, I'd say a potential $500 fine is cheap.
 
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