Selling the house won’t be a problem. So much work is unpermitted you can just stop thinking about it. Plus I don’t even know what deck you’re talking about, you mean the one that was built by the previous owner?

I thought that work was done before you moved in?

When people buy a house they just buy it the way they buy it. Especially if you’re giving it to your kids. People don’t walk around the whole place asking “Was that an upgrade? Where’s the permit?”

The agents don’t ask. No one asks.

Why. Don’t worry about it you’ll be fine

Is kinda odd that you seem so stressed out about permits for the deck that the previous owner built. Seems like a weird thing to be hung up on tbh

Your children would not have trouble selling it. Estates are exempt from the regular seller disclosures

I am in a fairly high cost area with high cost houses, nearly half of the work is unpermitted but done by good contractors. People more care about who did the work if they care in the first place.

I did get permits for some jobs and realized they mean nothing when permit inspection just involved saying hi to contractor and permit officer saying they know that contractor does good work so they dont need to inspect. And this costed me extra 300$.

It’s more important that it’s up to code.

Don’t tell your kids that you didn’t get a permit, and they can honestly say they don’t know of any work done without a permit. Chances are that the AHJ will have changed permitting systems several times and someone will have to go to paper records to discover the lack of permit. It’s been ruled an illegal search to use aerial searches to find illegal things.

You will likely need to expose the door structure because the inspector will be a jerk if you get a permit after the fact.

Who cares at this point? Just leave it alone.

If you actually want to make it legit and not blame the “last owner” a lot of cities have an option of inspecting work that is already done and retroactively giving you a permit. The permit essentially sanctions the work done - but the motive is to raise your assessable tax value. There also needs to be a recourse for people that made mistakes. If it gives you peace of mind you could look into it

If you don’t personally plan to sell then just leave it alone. The kids will eventually be selling “as-is” since they don’t have personal knowledge of any issues

Not worth worrying about. It is just a deck and a door. This wouldn’t bother me in the slightest as a buyer.

Sir, you are far too old to be scared of something like this. I finished my basement and put a full bath in. No permits. No increased property taxes. And no questions when I sold it.

Not all decks require a permit if they are under a certain size (no larger than 200 sqft) in my zone and height less than 30” from the ground.

Check the code in your zone.

I bought a house with an unpermitted room. Its really only an issue if it’s not safe or if future work triggers a inspection… its a deck so no biggie.

Also I think there’s a big difference between that where you can see most of the details like sizing and layout vs plumbing and electric work where someone could get hurt from a hidden issue or have a ton of mold in their walls from bad plumbing connections.

Even interior framing, some homeowner can compromise a load bearing wall to add a shower niche and cover it all back up

Having said that… some previous owner of my house decided to add a deck by bolting the ledger right through the vinyl siding. No flashing, no waterproofing, no sealant. Just lag bolts right through lap vinyl siding and it did cause damage to the rim joist. I wish someone had been around to check their work and stop them

You need to do what you need to do to sleep well at night. That rest is worth everything. You aren’t the first person with this problem, and the solution is not difficult.

I recently sold a house where I had finished the basement. On the disclosure list is a question was any work done without a permit. I just stated the basement was finished. Nothing was said about it when it sold. I don’t see a problem when your kids sell the house, they won’t have any knowledge of what was done. Don’t lose any sleep over it

With all due respect, please find something else to worry about for after you die because this isn’t it. You can do better. /s

If you are really confident that it’s up to code, see if your town office’s webpage explains what the penalty is for failing to get a permit. In my town it’s a fine up to 3x the price of the permit, which isn’t so bad.

Wrist case scenario is that your kids have to get a permit for the deck to sell it. I think that just means getting an inspection by the local official and paying some money. If your kids are selling the house then the estate makes the money back when the house sells.

If I’m a buyer then I worry more about the quality of the deck and framing. That’s what my home inspector is for.

Don’t sweat it. The only thing I’m adamant about is electrical permits. If your house burns down, the first thing your insurance does is check your town for permits. They will look for any reason to not pay you.

I have had work done on my house by contractors who got permits and inspections correctly, but then the addition/change to my house never showed up in the county records. And work done that didn’t get permits, and there it is in the county records as legitimate. I guess those inspectors just don’t dot all their “i”s or cross all their “t”s. If someone ever complains, I can truthfully say that it was done legitimately, and it was the inspector’s fault that it doesn’t show up.

This happened to my mom recently. She had the attitude a lot of people here have that “everyone does it so it’s fine,” then she had a minor disagreement with a neighbor and he reported it. They inspected it and let her get it up to code and pay what the permitting fees would have been originally plus some small fine, but she only had like a week or so to fix it. Definitely easier to just get it done on your own terms if possible IMO. My mom is in her 60s and she was stressed the hell out dealing with this.

How long is “a few years ago”?

In many areas building departments were mostly shut down during COVID and a lot of work got done with no good to go through the proper processes.

Some people have gone back to “make things right”, others haven’t.

It’s a common enough situation that most building departments are likely to be unsurprised if not sympathetic if you approach them.

Really dude….