Permits, permits, permits.

[Jared Drake]

Took half a day of vacation so we could start working on getting water and electricity on our land. Turns out, you need a permit for everything in our county. No back doors into a house or shack here! I'm ok with that, though. we did get our permits for water and electricity and put down almost all of our deposits. All that's left now is calling a plumber to run our water line (our land is too rocky to dig by hand) and fill out the application for the electric company. We've got the ball rolling!

[Patrick]

Same here the county wants permit money,the city wants money and the state wants money(Wisconsin) to build a 18x28 cabin almost in the middle of no where in a town with a bar and gas station where over a dollar per square foot in a dry cabin.

[MushCreek]

It's amazing how much permit fees vary by region. A friend of mine paid $66,000 in permits and fees for a build in CT! That's 66 thousand dollars- about 2/3 of my budget for my entire house. My permits in rural SC were $480.

[Abbey]

Makes me glad I live in a town with no codes or zones. In my town the only two things you need a permit for are the driveway, for 911, and septic.

[rick91351]

It's amazing how much permit fees vary by region. A friend of mine paid $66,000 in permits and fees for a build in CT! That's 66 thousand dollars- about 2/3 of my budget for my entire house. My permits in rural SC were $480.

WOW Mush that sounds almost California style, I guess parts of Co. is the same way.  Seems like UK4X4 Colorado build is way up there as well.

[Don_P]

I pulled alot of $20.80 permits, $10.40 for repairs/alterations before we decided that folks in the most financially stressed time in their lives should be used as a cash cow. The thinking before that time was that we as a community would help bear the burden of getting someone into a safe house. We viewed that new person in safe and secure shelter as a ralatively permanent asset to the community and we encouraged them. Now we expect each person to pay the full cost of inspections and that construction's impact on the infrastructure of the community. It's sort of like me saying, "I'm not going to pay for schools anymore because I don't have kids, each couple should pay their own way" while failing to realize that it is genuinely in our self interest to help get all kids up to some functional level so they will not be a greater future burden. At any given point around 3% of the population is in the construction process. We have zero memory. That doesn't give the 3% much clout.

Abbey, there is a difference between having no law and having no enforcement of the the law. I suspect you do have codes, codified (written) law, most of us do, many places have no enforcement. Construction in those areas is still supposed to be to the lawful minimum standards or better. The midground between those two is to hire private inspectors to file an inspection report in some jurisdictions that want to have inspections but don't have a building department. In other areas lenders have perfomed inspections, again to assure that I have performed properly with respect to their investment. Generally at some point after the fact the house is assessed by an insurance agent, he again is looking to see that basic minimum standards have been met. Skirting the law at one level does not mean one is clear of the network the law encompasses nowadays.

[Abbey]

Don,

I have gone to the town office and looked into this and according to the town manager it is assumed that builders, even owner builders, will abide by at least the minimum national building standards. It is up to the building contractor or the owner to ensure proper construction guidelines are being met. As far as septic is concerned you are correct, there is no enforcement because there isn't anybody to perform inspections. I also called the state district office and the engineer there told me the state does not perform inspections because this falls within the jurisdiction of townships. Since my town does not have a septic inspector I was told by the state engineer that it would be my responsibility to ensure the septic instillation met the design, either by hiring the designer to oversee the installation or having an inspection performed by someone else. This is how my town operates and is not indicative of other towns in my state. In fact I have some friends who live in towns with oppressive codes and almost militaristic enforcement. One fellow I know was forced to tear down a shed he built because it was 10 square feet over what the town had approved.

[rick91351]

The country where our ranch is located I don't know when voted and adopted IRC but it was always pretty much been there.  Then because of lack of enforcement mandated by the county commissioners who loved the idea of don't bother them they will be okay and spur more growth.  This all came to a halt when several structures failed and everyone was pointing fingers.  When the dust settled everyone was pointing at county enforcement.  So they fired everyone in the building department.  They replaced the building inspector that they had pulled his teeth and told him to go easy on every one.  Now the one we have is so by the book he is even reading out of his own book or reading way more in to the IRC book than should be.  The department manager has told me he lives in another county and commutes because he hate that county so much!  So life goes...... 

[Squirl]

Yeah, I do feel bad for those in such areas.  I am lucky.  I spoke with the building department and had the inspector out to my property as part of the purchase process.  I paid only $100 for the building and $40 for the septic.  In the process, I have gotten advice and feedback from the inspector, who is a licensed engineer with 20+ years of building experience.  It is a lot of piece of mind and expertise for $140.  The building department and inspector was a difference between the properties I was looking at in different areas.  $140 couldn't possibly have covered his salary for the amount of time I've already spent talking to him.

[Don_P]

The fast track to opression is ignorance. One of the reasons I have learned the codes is so that I know when someone is making up their own. But yes there is a difference in asking someone to clean the bathroom and telling them to do it with a toothbrush. That has everything to do with the person and little to do with the position. I enjoy working on the other side of the county line, I build the same on either side.

Squirl, I like departments like that. One I just described was run by a hard shelled old engineer. Once you cracked through that and he knew you were on the level he was a great resource.