Why Some Contractors Avoid Permits—and How It Can Leave Homeowners Paying the Price

I’ve been in this industry for over 40 years. I started out swinging a hammer, worked under a general contractor, ran my own jobs, and eventually became an inspector, plans examiner, and building official. I know what it’s like to be on both sides of the table. I’ve seen how the game is played, and I’ve seen how homeowners end up paying the price when they trust the wrong contractor.

Let me say this plainly: if a contractor tells you not to pull a permit, or offers to “save you time and money” by skipping one, that is a massive red flag. It’s not a shortcut. It’s a warning sign.

Good contractors pull permits. They know the codes, they stand behind their work, and they aren’t afraid to have it inspected. Even then, they occasionally fail an inspection. That’s normal. That’s how the system is supposed to work. And when it happens, the good ones fix the issue and move on.

So, if the professionals with licenses, experience, and reputations to protect can fail an inspection, what do you think is happening on the jobs that never get inspected?

I’ll tell you. They’re usually a mess.

As a building official, I’ve stopped work on more unpermitted jobs than I can count. And every time, it’s the same story. Structural framing that doesn’t carry the load. Electrical splices are buried in walls. Plumbing that will leak, back up, or worse. We don’t just find mistakes. We find hazards, fire hazards, collapse hazards, and health risks.

And the homeowner is the one stuck cleaning it up.

Insurance won’t cover unpermitted work. Code enforcement might fine you. You could be forced to tear it out and do it again the right way. That cheap deal you got from the guy who promised to “take care of it off the books” just became the most expensive mistake you’ve made.

Sometimes, the contractor wasn’t even licensed. Sometimes they’re working under someone else’s license. Sometimes they’re just hoping no one notices. But every time, they’re counting on one thing, that you won’t know better.

Well, now you do.

Even when I was still contracting, I saw the damage this caused. I’d get calls from homeowners who had already paid for a job that was done wrong. Most of the time, it wasn’t permitted. No inspections. No oversight. No protection. And I’d have to go in, rip it all out, and do it again. Those folks ended up paying twice, once for the mistake and once to fix it. They didn’t deserve that.

It’s hard enough to find a contractor you trust. But if you finally do, and they try to talk you out of pulling a permit, that should raise serious questions. If the work is solid, if the contractor knows what they’re doing, and if they’re truly licensed, there’s no reason to avoid the inspection process.

So here’s my message to the public: if your contractor says a permit isn’t needed, don’t take their word for it. Call your local building department and ask. If your contractor says a permit will cost too much or take too long, ask what they plan to skip. And if they resist having their work inspected, ask what they’re afraid of.

This isn’t about throwing all contractors under the bus. It’s about making sure homeowners understand the risk of trusting someone who won’t stand behind their work in front of an inspector. The good contractors don’t mind the scrutiny; they welcome it. They know that code-compliant work protects their clients and their own reputations.
And to all the building officials, inspectors, and code professionals out there, chime in. Share your stories. What have you found on jobs that were done without permits? What kind of damage did it cause? What did it take to fix? Let’s use this thread to educate the public on what really happens when permitting laws are ignored.

A permit is more than a piece of paper. It’s protection for the homeowner, the community, and the contractor who does it right.

 

[klarenbeek]

Furnace replacement where the existing vent going above a finished ceiling was too small for the new furnace. Instead of doing it right and resizing, their solution was to turn the original combustion air pipe into a second exhaust. They told the owner to keep the furnace room door open all the time.

This was done out in a rural area out of my jurisdiction where no permits or inspections are required for HVAC. The work was done by a contractor licensed to work in our jurisdiction. Another much more reputable contractor was called to fix it because (shocker) it wasn't working right. He sent me this picture to give me a good laugh and add to my !!! file.

 

[BN4537]

Happens all the time. Someone in our jurisdiction hired an unlicensed contractor (lastname construction, the owner assumed they were licensed and pulled a permit) to remodel a small house. The contractor gutted the place and installed plumbing and electrical without a license. The 90 at the right of this picture is actually reducing a 4" line down to 3" to tap into the existing sewer. Almost all of the plumbing upstream is 4". Which means that everything upstream had to be replaced with smaller pipe to make the existing sewer work. The longsweep san-tee is pointed back upstream. The plumbing was sloped properly, but my camera was not so it looks bad. The Furnco is not shielded per manufacturer for above ground application.

The electrical in-wall had already been covered, and if a guy can butcher plumbing this bad, I was not about to trust his electrical. Drywall was removed. The owner had to hire licensed contractors. He had already paid the unlicensed guy, so he ended up paying for everything twice.

Oh yeah. Above all - never, ever pay a contractor up front! Write the contract so that stages of work must be done and approved by the owner and by the AHJ before payment! If you have already paid the contractor, they are not coming back to fix anything! An owner does not need to take the risk, the contractor should take the risk. If the owner does not pay, the contractor can put a lien on the property. If the owner pays and the contractor doesn't perform, all the owner can do is sue, and most sleazy contractors are not collectible because they have broken up their business into a bunch of separate LLCs so that you can't get much out of them. Many sleazy contractors also keep all their money as cash and don't actually own any property etc. because they are already hiding from alimony payments and taxes and similar. If you can even find them again, you aren't likely to get any money from them. Some don't even have an address, they just shack up with a never-ending stream of older women for as long as they can leech off of them, which makes them almost impossible to serve legal notice on.

If the contractor needs money before he can start, you already know he doesn't manage his finances well. If he doesn't have a strong, clean contract, he wants to be able to skate out on you. You don't want that guy.

 

[tmurray]

My favorite experience involved an owner who thought the contractor had pulled the permit, but was noticing things looked funky and asked about an inspection. The contractor put them off a couple times, then the owner started asking to see the permit. Contractor put them off a couple more times. Finally told them all the work was unpermitted and if they didn't just let him get on with the job, he (the contractor) was going to get me involved and I would destroy their lives.

The next morning I had two of the most nervous people I had ever seen in my office. They figured they would rip the band aid off. They told me they thought he had gotten a permit and the work was going to be inspected, but then found out later he hadn't. I told them that if they ever have a contractor not give them a permit, they can always call us and we will give it to them. We discussed the project and what stage it was at. I told them I needed to do a site visit before we could decide how to proceed, but do not do any work in the meantime as it might need to come off. Got them to fill out an application for a permit.

A couple days later I did a field inspection and noted a couple issues. Some of their concerns weren't code issues. Some were. There were obviously more code issues that they hadn't noticed. We talked about how to get the project back on track, some areas needing uncovered. We made a plan.

At the end of the inspection, they asked about fines. We can fine and we can double the permit fee. I told them that, but said we weren't doing either in this case. The home owner tried to do the right thing. When they found out they weren't doing the right thing, they showed up in my office. Why would I punish and disincentivize that behavior? That is what I want people to do. This is when they told me about the contractor threatening to involve me. I was surprised. I had don't think I had ever dealt with this contractor. Certainly not directly. Normally I'm know as someone who gets things back on track. I fix things. This is what contractors who work with me a lot say about me. This is what these owners say about me now too.

 

[rktect 1]

After 20 years in inspections, plan reviews, code enforcement and now being a building official for the past 4 years, I run on the assumption that everyone knows to get a permit. Everyone. This city has 12,000 population, roughly 2.5 sq. miles, we place over 150 stop works each year. 8.5x11 blaze orange tags everywhere for everyone to see. Owners come and complain about the embarrassment of having the orange sticker on their front windows. We also send out quarterly newsletters to every address in the city explaining permitting, process and where to go to get permits. Its shown on our website. We have handouts for everything. We talk to the owners of the big hardware stores to let them know for the services they offer.

They all know even though they all come in and tell me they do not know and nobody has ever required them to get a permit in the city of somewhere else.

I'm no longer playing that game. I'm up front with them. They have been informed and they knew and we charge double fees and depending on the specific case I can charge another $250 to have the stop work notice removed. And even after all this, I still have to take some people to adjudication where the judge will force them to get moving on it and then we fine them up to $2500.

Being in this business I can tell you that I have lost most of my empathy. Once in a blue moon I do have some sympathy left in reserves for that elderly couple on a fixed income, but that is about it.

 

[ICE]

In my experience, it is just as likely as not that the owner and contractor are in it together.