Can A Building Permit Protect Me?

 

Buyer Beware

City building inspectors rarely if ever look at the work a retrofit done by your contractor.  They must do 10-15 inspections a day and take 1/2 hour for lunch and simply do not have time and except in San Leandro they do not carry the appropriate safety equipment.  In addition, unappealing crawl spaces the the one shown below are the rule rather than the exception and they don’t want to get their clothes dirty.  In short, even if you have a permit no one is going to look at your retrofit.  

Here are a few examples interactions with building inspectors from September 1st and October  15th 2024.  This is the rule rather than the exception. 

San Francisco: Does not even require plans. One only needs to say “put in hardware and plywood” and the words seismic or earthquake or retrofit are not allowed.  The point being that no one at the City will look at what you plan to do or what you have done to see if it will resist an earthquake.  In a recent inspection the inspector did not even get out of his truck and said “there is no code for me to follow and you have no plans, what am I supposed to do?”

Pleasanton: Homeowner was told by inspector that “We are not allowed to crawl underneath the house. I will just look at pictures”

Palo Alto: City inspector looked at 1 photograph. Total time on-site less than 5 min including the necessary paperwork for the City.
 
Berkeley: Did a virtual inspection. Inspector was never on-site
 
Napa: Inspector arrived and asked “What are we looking at”. I replied with  “All underfloor. Grab your knee pads”. He replied “I’m not crawling underneath the house” then he requested that I show him pictures. Total time on site less than 5 min including the necessary paperwork for the City.  
 
At this point they will usually just want to see a few pictures.
 
 
 
 

THIS IS WHY INSPECTORS DO NOT WANT TO CRAWL UNDER HOUSES

There is neither special licensing for retrofit contractors nor is there a retrofit building code to follow.  From the building department’s point of view if you want to put in shiny hardware that may or may not help the house resist earthquakes it is not their place to stop you.  It is your house and you can do whatever you want to.

Many building departments do not even allow mentioning the words “Retrofit” on permit applications.  At the most one can say, “voluntary seismic upgrade”, or “put in shiny hardware” and some cities, such as San Francisco, won’t even allow that. 

When You Sell Your Home

The only time the permit issue comes up is upon time of sale.  You must disclose all work that was done without a permit.  Many buyers hire a private home inspector to examine the house. These inspectors know that the permit means nothing. The buyer just wants to know if the job was done right.  If so, that is the end of the story.

Therefore, it is important to have all the documentation you can get to show the home inspector and future buyers in the form of photographs and a set of plans that shows exactly what was done and where. Your contractor should provide you with this when the job is complete.