Do I need a permit?
November 17th, 2009 categories: Home Improvement & Design, Land & Rural
Renovate
BRYAN, TX — Well, I’m not really doing any major structural repairs…No one will notice if I add-on a little room here…The city is just out to make an extra buck on my renovations. Yes, we’ve heard all the excuses for not pulling a permit on your little bathroom upgrade.
Think about it from a community position, though. If you don’t visit the City of Bryan website to apply for a permit, you’re jeopardizing your good neighbors in the loss of utilities or phone services. The city makes it so easy now to mail in the short form I highlighted from the city website in the previous sentence.
There are more construction items requiring work permits than I have room or time for here. Some upgrades you might not think about are:
Water heater replacements
Sprinkler irrigation systems
Carports
The guys at the city are the experts on our safety codes. If you have a question as to whether or not a permit is necessary, call Greg Cox at 209-5010 or visit www.Bryantx.gov for answers.
Legally, the only reason you don’t have to disturb our friends in Planning and Development is if you are painting, installing cabinets, adding a children’s playscape, building a short fence, or placing a small storage shed on skids. Everything else has a safety concern…hence the need to call.
Yeah I’ve had some interesting stories with permits before. Here’s a tip that I learned… I hired a guy to do some electrical work and he didn’t have a permit. But he went out and got the permit and then hid the charge in my bill.
I was to nice and didn’t ask why it seemed so high. Make sure that anybody you hire has all the necessary permits and certifications they need.
Good post.
There are many homeowners who are confuse when to get a permit when it comes to renovating a house, I think it’s on your locality and what kind of renovation you will be doing.