Renovation Without A Permit

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ATSman

ATSman

ATSman
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Occupation
Electrical Engineer/ Electrical Testing & Controls
My new neighbor just bought the single family house next to me which is about 69 yrs old. He is renovating the insides, all new sheetrock, floors, replacing the K & T electrical wiring, the whole 9 yards. He says he is a contractor, and has a few other guys helping him who drive what look like contractor pickups.
I have never seen a city inspector come onsite and suspect he is doing the work without a permit. I am not the type of guy to stir up trouble and want to keep a good relationship with all my neighbors but, without it being inspected, my concern is out of fire safety for his house, family as well as my own. Do I have any rights to question him when it comes to these issues?
I was wondering what others thought if they were put in the same situation or had a similar experience and what you did to resolve it.
Thanks.
 
Permits are public records. You can go down to the building department and find out if any have been pulled for the property and he wouldn't even have to know you're the one who checked.

If the only person he was affecting was himself, I'd say let it slide. But as you point out, there his family and yours, not to mention future occupants of the structure.
 
Assuming San Francisco proper, there's a high likelihood that your house is actually touching his and that makes his work VERY pertinent to your safety.

Inspectors in SF do drive around on their way too and from job sites looking for obvious construction work and cross check for permits at that address. But when all the work is inside it's difficult for them to see it, especially if the guy is experienced at making sure nothing shows, i.e. no dumpsters outside for debris, trucks parked down the street etc. An anonymous call to alert them on a day when you know there is something obvious could result in a "drive by" surprise.
 
send a letter w/o return address, w/o name on it.

something like "this house [address] is doing a ton of work, did you issue a permit for it? if not please inspect it". what a pita if new electrical is covered up with sheet.

nice neighbor is to make insure safety.

my neighbors probably freaked when i had a kabota 008 in my backyard for many weekends, lots of trenches and mounds of dirt. nobody ever asked me, but i did have my permit before doing structure build, buried gas lines to carry ~150k btu from meter, above grade and buried electrical :)
 
infinity said:
IMO a good neighbor will just let it go.
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I feel conflicted about that. However, if there is a reasonable prospect of a fire in that home affecting mine, I'll be on the phone in a heartbeat. I see too many structures in town where there's been a fire and the siding on a structure 30 or 40 feet away looks like a Salvador Dali sculpture.
 
infinity said:
IMO a good neighbor will just let it go.
Click to expand...
In a way I feel the same way. However, if my neighbor is doing his own electrical work I would be happy to go over and help out. On the other hand, if I knew boot-legged electrical work was being done by some slacker friend of his I would contact the bldg. dept. to see if any permits were taken out.
 
gadfly56 said:
I feel conflicted about that. However, if there is a reasonable prospect of a fire in that home affecting mine, I'll be on the phone in a heartbeat. I see too many structures in town where there's been a fire and the siding on a structure 30 or 40 feet away looks like a Salvador Dali sculpture.
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you have a neighbor fire monitor or something?

just send that notepad printed letter to the town permitting folks. if anything needs to be done it has to be done there anyways, etc.
 
FionaZuppa said:
you have a neighbor fire monitor or something?

just send that notepad printed letter to the town permitting folks. if anything needs to be done it has to be done there anyways, etc.
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I have no idea what you're trying to say.
 
how would you know of reasonable prospect of a fire there? are you yourself inspecting their work?

just send the darn letter, be done with it.
 
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FionaZuppa said:
how would you know of reasonable prospect of a fire there? are you yourself inspecting their work?

just send the darn letter, be done with it.
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You confuse prediction of the event with an evaluation of the likely outcome. Here, let me quote myself: "However, if there is a reasonable prospect of a fire in that home affecting mine..." All that requires is an estimate as to IF there is a fire, is it LIKELY to affect my house? THAT's what I need to know, not if there will EVER be a fire.
 
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infinity said:
IMO a good neighbor will just let it go.
Click to expand...

goldstar said:
In a way I feel the same way. However, if my neighbor is doing his own electrical work I would be happy to go over and help out. On the other hand, if I knew boot-legged electrical work was being done by some slacker friend of his I would contact the bldg. dept. to see if any permits were taken out.
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x3

If the op really​ wants to know if a permit has been pulled, he can find out.:)

Wouldn't hurt either to just be nosy- go over, strike up a conversation with the guy and nonchalantly check out his work...and IF it looks bad, and IF no permit has been pulled, then it might be the time to make some waves.
 
user 100 said:
x3

If the op really​ wants to know if a permit has been pulled, he can find out.:)

Wouldn't hurt either to just be nosy- go over, strike up a conversation with the guy and nonchalantly check out his work...and IF it looks bad, and IF no permit has been pulled, then it might be the time to make some waves.
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Ohhh, SO not doing that. If the hammer comes down, I'll get the blame whether I dropped the dime or not. Then I get to live next to someone for X years who has a permanent mad-on for me? No thanks! Do it stealthy or not at all.
 
gadfly56 said:
Ohhh, SO not doing that. If the hammer comes down, I'll get the blame whether I dropped the dime or not. Then I get to live next to someone for X years who has a permanent mad-on for me? No thanks! Do it stealthy or not at all.
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He still would not know if you snitched on him or not.

My point was only if permit had not been pulled- then he would be nailed IF you saw something egregious.

Residential electrical may be technically outside of his area of expertise, and is potentially dangerous when done incorrectly- but if its somebody that is working on their own home (permit or not), and it looks good......
How many of us here have replaced gas lines or sewer pipe w/ no permit.;)
 
user 100 said:
He still would not know if you snitched on him or not.

My point was only if permit had not been pulled- then he would be nailed IF you saw something egregious.

Residential electrical may be technically outside of his area of expertise, and is potentially dangerous when done incorrectly- but if its somebody that is working on their own home (permit or not), and it looks good......
How many of us here have replaced gas lines or sewer pipe w/ no permit.;)
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It doesn't matter if he knows, he's gonna suspect me and that will be good enough to get a feud started. These are human beings we're talking about here; logic, proof, and rules of evidence are concepts that aren't even on the radar screen.
 
My neighbor bought his house across the street, a real fixer upper. He had his family (an engineer) help with finishing the basement and doing some other work. I saw some of the work and the place was a disaster, however he's a nice guy and I'm not the neighborhood cop so what he does in his own place is none of my business. Do we really want to live in a place where our neighbors are all spies and drop a dime as soon as they see something that may require a permit and inspection?

In my experience almost everyone (including those on this forum) have done some work on their own home without getting all of the proper permits.
 
infinity said:
My neighbor bought his house across the street, a real fixer upper. He had his family (an engineer) help with finishing the basement and doing some other work. I saw some of the work and the place was a disaster, however he's a nice guy and I'm not the neighborhood cop so what he does in his own place is none of my business. Do we really want to live in a place where our neighbors are all spies and drop a dime as soon as they see something that may require a permit and inspection?

In my experience almost everyone (including those on this forum) have done some work on their own home without getting all of the proper permits.
Click to expand...

Let me be the first one to 'fess up. That doesn't make it right. :happysad:
 
IMO, the city should know and his project should get inspected.

Especially in San Francisco where most of the homes are joined together and the timber is very old and very dry.
 
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