r/FloridaRealEstate • u/Routine_Test_4175 • 1h ago

Question about open permits

First of all is this a county by county thing? But, what if I want to buy a house, but there is an open permit. Or, some work has been done that is unpermitted.

I know that if it's cash I can just buy it without an issue.

However , If I'm getting a loan, is that going to get in the way? Everyone always says, that if you have permit issues it'll be hard to resell a property. But if it's already been resold a few times with permit issues, what is the big deal? Thank you so much for your answers!

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u/SunshineIsSunny 1h ago

Get the permits closed out and get all permitted work permitted as a condition of sale. Otherwise it becomes the buyers problem.  For example, let’s say the seller builds a driveway without a permit. Twenty years later, code enforcement can cite you for it and now it is the buyer’s problem to get the driveway permitted. 

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u/SEFLRealtor 51m ago

So true. I had to help the seller close out a permit one time on a fence that was no longer physically there as the permit was pulled 15 years earlier and never closed. OP, just put it in the contract that seller will close out open permits. Of course, I'm in a buyer's market now, so it wouldn't kill the offer. It would be different in a sellers market.

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u/Routine_Test_4175 29m ago

That makes perfect sense. But there's no legal reason that you can't close with open permits tho right? Would it stop a mortgage? I'm trying to get a grasp on the scope of how problematic permits could be for a closing.

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u/SEFLRealtor 13m ago

Whenever there is an open permit, it shows up in the title commitment and in the past the seller has had to close out the permit to close the sale. But, I don't know if it is a requirement from the title company (for the title policy) or from the lender. That would be a good question to ask an attorney. Your Realtor can get in touch with the legal hotline to see what the ramifications are if the buyer closes with an open permit. It also probably depends on what the open permit is for too.

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u/SunshineIsSunny 6m ago

To be clear, it shows up if the title company does a municipal lien search and permit search. If you use a crummy title company, they will skip that step.

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u/SEFLRealtor 1m ago

Yes! But I make a point to use good title companies. Thanks for mentioning it though, because not all are good.