Buying a Short Sale & an extra room has no Certificate of Occupancy? How bad is it?

**RichTJ99** · 12-06-2010, 07:51 PM

Hi,

I am looking at a house that is a short sale. It has been on the market over a year & has had a few 'almost' sales. The sellers realtor states that the sales fell through due to the bank taking forever on getting a closing (4+ months). I am new to short sales (I have owned my home for 6 years) so I dont know what to believe.

Anyway, I love the house & while it does need some TLC, my wife & I think its perfect.

Basically if I want the house getting the C of O is my problem & my expense. I am not exactly sure what is involved in it. I am expecting some sheetrock is torn down for an inspector (they are two extra bedrooms).

My realtor told me that I need an architect, a plumber & an electriction to give the OK on the work & fix it if not. I was told at minimum it would be $3,000 to $5,000.

Is this something I should run away from? I do really like the house & its the perfect layout for my family, great neighborhood, a great fit.

I am sort of curious, if I do get a CO, does that mean the town would reassess the property (say going from a 4 bedroom to a 6 bedroom)?

Thanks,
Rich

EDIT: BTW, the listing calls the two rooms (each with a closet) a single "bonus room". Though they look a lot like bedrooms to me.

**Greg** · 12-09-2010, 06:22 AM

Talk to your local zoning department or the town/county building inspector and find out what would be involved with getting the problem fixed.

Did they build over the setback lines?

Did they follow code?

Here, we have septic systems and it would have to be upgraded to allow the extra space. If you have central sewage is there the ability to add the extra rooms?

There is no way of putting a price tag on the cost until you find out exactly what it will take to fix it from the people who will be requiring you to fix it.

**RichTJ99** · 12-09-2010, 07:20 AM

Hi,

I am waiting to get more information. However, after more digging, they added an extra full bathroom in the basement. I dont know if they followed code I think they did the extras in 2007 but if they had a friend do it or a contractor, I dont know.

The house has septic & I am trying to figure out what size tank it has. From what I read, each room needs its own 250 gallon capacity in the tank, so with two extra rooms & 1 extra bathroom, that adds up to an extra 750 gallons of speptic space needed to be in code.

Part of me wonders if I should just tear up the basement & start over. Again the basement doesnt have an egress exit, but when I called the town they said that because the basement has a door that goes to the garage, if I put another door in the gargage for a person, that would work.

It seems to me in this day & age where every town is hurting for money, I cant imagine that it wouldnt be jumping through hoops to get this done.

The other issue, I note is the taxes, which are litterally double what i am paying now. I believe the house is assesed at over 1M & its for sale at 700K so I think I could get the taxes down.

I am really thinking hard as its a great layout but it is a much bigger nut to crack each month.

That plus the lack of a C/O in two separate parts of the house, the fact that its a short sale, the fact that somehow I need to get this all fixed before the closing, yet how do I put my money to fixing someone elses house (that seems crazy), it seems like a lot of thing stacked against me.

Thanks,
rich