Having bought and sold all over the country while spending 24 years in the Navy, I can assure you that the answer is highly dependent on what jurisdiction you live in.

Many, many kitchens, furnaces, baths, are installed every day and cause no problem at the time of future sale in my experience. That said, I understand your concern. I think you need to talk to the County and be up front about what happened. I would also tell the contractor that installed your system that you are going to do that and that you intend to be honest and tell the County that you had been assured that Permits would be pulled.

This post was edited by saltidawg on Fri, Oct 18, 13 at 13:27

Was the contractor licensed? If not, they can not get a permit to work on another's property. Homeowners can get a permit and contract the work themselves.

The contractor is licensed and is a very large geothermal installer in our area (although they are not based out of our county or township).

I would have gotten all the permits myself if knew I had to do so, but we were told that they would take care of that and that they would also handle the coordination with the well driller (which they did...just not sure if permit was pulled for that either). Well driller is licensed as well.

In the town where I live you cannot sell your house until you get a certification of occupancy inspection from the code official. If they find something that was done without a permit, then you must apply for the permit and then have it inspected to verify it is within code.

It is hard to believe a reputable contractor not applying for permits in install a geothermal system. I would love to know what are the cases when they typically apply for permits.

The part that may be of concern is the oil tank. Was it previously buried in the ground? If so was it disposed of properly? The bank will what to know this because of the potential liability. If it was in the basement or above ground then there should be no worry.

My suggestion would be to have the contractor apply for the permit and you pay for it. Then have the inspection done and have the contractor fix any code violations at his expense.

First of all - donâÂÂt panic!

I had a somewhat similar incident when we installed our geothermal system. Someone from the municipality happened to drive by and just about went berserk when he saw what was going on with 2-drill rigs, massive compressors and tracked excavators etc. He asked if we had permits; I informed him that we didnâÂÂt. He didnâÂÂt say stop all work, which we wouldnâÂÂt have done in any case but he did take MANY digital photos of the work site and informed me that he will be submitting them to the Engineering Department.

Our municipality has no permit requirement; I guess they havenâÂÂt figured out yet how to tax it. I have since heard from the cityâÂÂs chief engineer on 2 occasions, once to consult with him on converting the municipal swimming pool, sports complex, indoor skating rink, and municipal garage - all separate buildings, to geothermal. The other occasion was when he himself was interested in a geothermal conversion of his own home.

Why am I telling you this? HereâÂÂs the bottom line. Many, perhaps MOST municipalities have NO regulations or by-laws concerning geothermal installations. If itâÂÂs not on the books, they leave you alone. Most wouldnâÂÂt even know what or how to inspect them. So, if your municipality has no by-laws on the books then almost certainly no permit is required and youâÂÂre home free - literally. Furthermore, if by-laws were adopted AFTER your installation was done then you should be exempted and grandfathered!

Some jurisdictions that have brought in permit requirements have absolutely killed geothermal for all but commercial and institutional projects, as the permit requirement requires an engineering study to be performed and having a professional engineer sign off on the project. This could easily add $10k to the cost of a residential project making it untenable. Commercial or institutional geothermal projects always have the engineering requirement so itâÂÂs no big deal and already factored in.

As a case in point to illustrate the effect of regulation, after 1-geothermal driller encountered natural occurring natural gas in 1-residential geothermal borefield, a province wide moratorium was placed on ALL geothermal drilling everywhere in Ontario with the requirement of proving that any project - even residential, conform to and comply with EPA regulation.

ItâÂÂs like trying to get EPA and governmental approval to build a pipeline in you front yard!

Imagine the costâ¦

SR

Here is a link that might be useful: CGC - Moratorium On Drilling

Even if no permits are specifically required for ground-source heat pumps, permits are probably required for well drilling and major remodels and refits. That means that if permits are required for these kind of activities, you would need them for your ground-source heat pump system install.

My HVAC contractor got a permit for changing from conventional ducted HVAC to mini-splits. Yes, it was inspected.