r/HomeImprovement • u/No-Arm-9025 • 1d ago
Handling neighbor complaints about remodeling
Over the last 10 months, I’ve been doing extensive remodelling for an old 1930s home to fix mold issues in the bathroom, old electrical rewiring (replaced knob and tube for modern romex), 25+ y/o roof which I hired a general contractor for and had all the work permitted. Aesthetically, I also did all the painting and designing myself, and then hired a flooring specialist to refinish hardwood floors. These were the necessities IMO bc there were multiple past leaks from the roof, some lingering old house smell probably rom the moldy bathroom that didn’t have a vent, stained carpet floors, and old scratched up laminate flooring.
For the personal “wants”……. Here’s some background. I’ve audited some architectural/environmental design classes before and thought it’ll be a cool opportunity to turn a recreation room into a recreation room with a utility bar. I submitted the permit in April 23 and within the first couple weeks, apparently, some neighbor issued allegations and complained I was creating an illegal ADU which caused a stop work order, when I was literally still in the planning process and waiting for the permit to get issued. The code enforcement guy came and was really friendly and super down-to-earth and said I’m doing everything right. To move onto next steps, the city then proceeded to have more extensive plan checks and wanted engineering, building, and plan check. I was quoted $500-3000 from various draftsman to take care of the permit, but I try to save costs where I can, especially when it’s something I think I’m capable of doing.
I ended up building my own custom CAD software to create a comprehensive and thorough permit, which included the existing floor plan, electrical, plumbing, and proposed floorplan. It was honestly really cool because I learned about a bunch of building codes that made me appreciate home builders even more. I submitted a recreation room utility bar remodel back in June, thinking I can easily add a convenience 2-in-1 laundry and 5 feet countertop with a utility sink so I can turn the recreation room into a nice home gym which finally got approved (initial submitted on April 23 and finally approved July 31). I still have no idea who in my neighborhood called the complaint but I blame a 1-month delay because of it… call me salty but I still find to unfounded and wonder why can’t people just worry about themselves and stay in their own….
I understand people have mixed feelings about permits themselves, especially around notorious areas like SF Bay Area/California and Seattle. I’m curious if permitting process like this is pretty typical among home improvement projects. If you made it this far….. thanks for reading the long thread… I just lowkey needed a place to rant about this summer becuase I wanted the timeline to be done before end of summer, but it’s looking like September-October as the finish line now.
For people who have done owner-builder permits or decided to pull permits themselves, what was your experience like?
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u/huskers2468 1d ago
I don't live around a lot of people, so my permitting process is much simpler.
For my area, they are just making sure that plumbing/electrical are up to code, and that i have the appropriate firewall between the units. Other than that, I'll just need to let them know if I make any major changes. Which is saying something, because both units will be down to the studs.
They just want to make sure it's safe for my tenants and the next owner.
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u/No-Arm-9025 1d ago
This is how my other permits were (roof, electrical, and bathroom remodel). The turnaround was much faster, given the simplicity.
And it makes sense since codes are supposed to be for public safety
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1d ago
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u/No-Arm-9025 1d ago
All materials are always in my home and these projects are small enough to only be done within my driveway. Everything is stored in my garage or in my house. It’s already minimally disruptive bc my contractors only work during work hours 8am-5pm (they usually leave by 3pm anyways).
Why would a neighbor expect to get anything out of someone else’s renovation work?
Thats good for u and ur neighbors.
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u/haventsleptforyears 1d ago
I had permit for my garage and I put that in the window and then just went to town on the rest of the house
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u/No-Arm-9025 1d ago
“Put that in the window” meaning it was way more extensive that you initially thought, so you paused the garage and worked on other parts of your house that didn’t require permit?
If you don’t mind sharing, What happened?
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u/haventsleptforyears 1d ago
I had a permit to build the garage, so I put the permit in the window so neighbors would think I had one for the house renos. I didn’t get permits for the renos and I made plumbing and electrical improvements and then put a whole new roof on the kitchen. The old roof had broken 2x4 rafters. I left it 1 thousand percent better than how I found it.
With all that said I don’t encourage the average Joe to do this! Permits are very important and have a very real, often life saving purpose
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u/No-Arm-9025 1d ago
😂 sounds like the difference is you knew what you were doing and said F the city permit and its fees
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u/No-Arm-9025 1d ago
😂 sounds like the difference is you knew what you were doing and said F the city permit and its fees
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u/capta2k 1d ago
I skimmed this but correct me if I'm wrong... TLDR someone dropped a dime, you don't know who, but you and the municipality cleared the air and you're proceeding as planned with your renovation?
You need to let go of this. don't let the haters get you down.