What Stage Are You In With Your Property?

Say you have a situation where you have bought a home subject to. The tenant moved and you did a lease option with the tenant. They moved in and along towards the end of the option time period he was thinking about exercising the option and he had the home inspected. When the report came back from the home inspector, he said that the people that were there before them built on additional third bedroom and a patio without a building permit and he didn't like that news too well. Long story-the tenant is out. Now you are getting ready to get a new tenant. What should you do about the building being without a permit so this doesn’t happen again?

Whew! This is a tough one! I think you should get the city to come out and look at the property and find out where you are with it. Realistically, that is your best option. I will guarantee you they would be happy to come out and look at it if you call them. Most homeowners dread that idea but you are going to have to find out what is legal and what is not legal one way or the other.

Now, you may be wondering, how does it shake down from there if they build on that without a permit? How does that really work if you are in a subject to position on the home now? Well, fortunately for you, you took it subject to, and if the previous owners built an illegal addition on there at least you have a reason to go back and give them their house back. That’s right you heard me.

Go back and give the house back if you have to!

No, you may not want to do that at this point. Of course you may not want to do it, but you need to know where you are at, and if they passed on this mess to you, now you have to clean it up or give it back, those are your choices.

So in the end, you contact the buildings permit department (find out who is in charge of that) and get them come out and take a look at the home. If there is an addition and they did not get a permit it has to be permitted. It may seem frustrating to clean the mess up, but you might as well do it now on the front end. Hopefully that was the answer you were looking for!

When it comes to real estate investing, I highly recommend information from Ron LeGrand. For valuable information regarding investing in homes visit RonLeGrand.com. You can also find useful investor resources in the free newsletter at MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com