A friend of mine owns a landscaping design business and in the off-season does contracting on the side. He onws rental properties, flip houses. He uses licensed plumbers and elecltricians for all his work. I've seen his work; it's top shelf stuff.

Now, to the dilemma......

My friend says I should do the bathroom without getting a permit.
He says the permit process is a huge PITA for my town (he would know because he lives in my town too). Plus, he said my taxes would go up.

I asked him, "what if I go to sell, what to I do?"

He said claim ignorance. Tell the inspector/realtor, etc. that the contractor said he got all the permits. He said most folks won't even ask about permits if the work looks done good and right. It is when the work looks like a hack job is when people start to ask questions.
He said we would take pictures of all the work as we went along to show any inspector if the issue came up.
He said if I had to pay a fine at the time of sale, it would be less than the increase in taxes I would've paid.

So, what does everyone think?

If I was doing this myself, I would definitely get a permit. But since all the work will be done by licensed guys (and presumably up to code) why not take the bit of risk and skip the permits?

thanks for the input.
mm

You should also worry about "what if it's not done right" when it's a job like this. Do you know precisely how the work needs to be done? There's too much temptation to miss, overlook or alter something important.

When I finished our basement and added a bathroom, I pulled a permit for the plumbing. I recall the challenges our very experienced plumber had when he tied the drains into what was a very tight space in the floor with the stack nearby. He did a nice job, but there were a couple real challenges that slowed him down and he was against the clock in his head. I was very glad to know there was an inspection forthcoming, which added incentive to get it done (and tested) properly, no matter what.

That plumber also tried to install our shower pan on a sloped floor ("It should be fine....", he said), but had to put the kaibosh on that idea real quick.

The plumber and electrician will be required to get their own individual trade permits. Why would they risk a run-in with the building department to do you a favor? The issue is mot likely to be decided by you unless these people are really hard up for work.

In my state, residential alterations and repairs are EXEMPT from permit, and do not increase one's tax liability EVER.

Call your code enforcement office and ask what you must do to comply with your local building code.

If you need permits and inspections...GET THEM.

If you don't...BE RELIEVED and build on....

The work still has to pass the same inspection, just the permit process is streamlined.

The gotcha in code departments and permits is that in most jurisdictions, if a non permitted job is discovered, the law covers tearing out the work to allow whatever inspections are necessary and adding a fine on top of that.

As a rule, checking with the codes office and following their procedures can be almost painless in many cases. Except for the fees, of course.

Yes, you should probably have a permit but......

I'm not sure why upstanding professionals would want to skip the permit, they have too much to loose. Depending on local law penalties could includes fines and loss of a business license. While permits can be a pita why would anyone wanting to continue doing business in that town risk pissing off the folks who issue permits and do inspections. An inspector with an ax to grind can really screw up a job.