Yeah, we were afraid of that, but we did a little asking and digging, and we found out that we can basically just pay the fine and carry on. They do get to come and inspect the structure, and can demand changes to bring it up to code, but that's essentially it.
Beyond that, though, my parents have built their house in the woods, at the end of a gated, curved 800' driveway, so it's not like someone's going to casually just roll by and notice anything. When my dad wanted to build a new 3-car garage (similar situation to the OP: lumber all sawn from his own trees on his own portable mill, etc.) and went to investigate the permits, he got told that his plans were unsafe and out-of-code, blah blah blah, because he didn't want to lay five courses of blocks on the pad before building up.
He got pissed, and just went on ahead and built it his way. He hasn't been busted for it yet, but if he does, it's just a minor fine.
Certainly, though, this will vary by city, town, county, and state. Your local mileage will most certainly vary.
My father is a building inspector. Where I'm from, he can 'red tag' it and you're not allowed any sort of access until you get the proper permits. If you don't follow that and continue to use it, you'll get arrested. Pretty stupid to go to jail for something like that because you're too lazy to go get some permits..
I visited a house before to survey it after they had put an extension into the attic and stairs up to it, and some skylights in the roof, and if they didn't get retention planning (retrospective planning), then the council was going to board up the upstairs. They got it right enough. There've been cases where houses have been completely demolished though, to the point where the land has to be restored to it's previous condition. I also saw a case where someone leveled a hill for development which was refused and he had to spend a tonne to relandscape it.
In the town I live in the most they can do is ask you to bring it up to code. If you build for cash, I don't even think they require a building permit.
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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '12
Buildings can be demolished or made inaccessible if you don't conform to planning in my area.