How additions to a home without permits can be a problem in Palm Springs, but not as bad as you might think.

A couple of years ago I sold a property to an investor who was looking for a bargain. Now in 2004 there weren’t many bargains as we were in the middle of the big real estate expansion and properties were hard to find. We searched all over and found the perfect place, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2 car garage, pool, spa and a guest house.

There in lies the problem, the guest house. This 400 sq. foot addition had been added behind the garage some time in the history of this house built in 1962, but there weren’t any plans and the square footage didn’t show up in the county records. I made sure the buyer was aware of this and he kept asking, “What happens if we buy the house and someone finds out?”

“Well,”I said, “ that could happen and then we would have to deal with it, but the addition has been there for at least 30 years and nothing has happened so the chances are likely nothing will, but you never know.” The owner decided to take his chances and went ahead and bought the home.

The owner rented the property himself and the new tenants seemed to be doing OK until one day something happened between the owner and the “male” tenant. What? I never got the real story but the next thing I know I get a call from the owner saying that he received a notice from the City of Palm Springs Code Enforcement that there was an illegal guest house on the property and what was I going to do about it? Seems the upset “male” tenant had called and filed a complaint, even though they had someone living in the guest house or so I thought. It seems the owner had kept the guest house for himself and whenever he wanted to come over from LA and enjoy the sun and pool he did. Seems the “female tenant” was OK with this arrangement, but not the other tenant.

The first step taken by the City of Palm Springs was to have someone from the building department come out and inspect the property. Once this was completed we were given a list of issues that had to be resolved before we could apply for the permit. Part of the inspection was to open part of a wall and dig up the foundation, which then had to be repaired. We then had to draw up a set of plans for the addition, then make the repairs. Some were minor, but we did have to replace all the dry wall along the back of the garage as the addition was attached to the garage and needed to be sealed with a special kind of dry wall.

After the final inspection was completed and the permit fees paid we were issued a permit from the city for the addition. The owner then decided he would have me deal with the tenants in the future. The first tenant had moved out and we found a new tenant for the main house and guest house who has now lived there for over two years.

If you have a property that has had un-permited work done you can have that fixed, permitted and improve the resale value of your property. Keep in mind that while this was fixable had the foundation not been done correctly or the frame done wrong we would have had to tear down the addition and replace it.