Contractors, do you understand that you are throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars and risking your business when you skirt around regulations by starting and completing a construction project without obtaining a building permit?
Sure, they take time out of your busy day, are challenging to obtain, and involve lots of documents, but the benefits of pulling a building permit are that they alert customers that you are a responsible contractor and have taken the step to ensure customers projects are in compliance with local jurisdiction building codes.
To assist you in your business, below are 10 benefits of obtaining the proper building permits and why you should always pull a building permit when the scope of work dictates.
#1. Ensures Safety – building a safe structure minimizes your liabilities and the first step in this effort is obtaining a construction permit.
#2. Helps Customer to be able to properly sell the property – there is no worse feeling than preparing to sell a building and you run into a slight glitch as the interested parties request to see building permits and certificate of occupancies for construction work completed. While skipping the permit early on gave the appearance of saving money, the bill comes due and is costly when customer prepares to sell their property.
#3. Assists customers in obtaining bank loans and financing on a property – many construction loans across the country cannot go through unless there is proof of a building permit being pulled. And if Owner pays out of pocket for construction and then seeks financing later for work completed, again evidence of a building permit most of the time is required.
#4. Shows professionalism
#5. Reflects Subcontractor’s principles – intentionally not pulling a permit when required implies an unethical nature and character of the contractor.
#6. Indicates care for your customer – there are many ways to show that you care about your customer and capable of doing quality work. One way is pulling a permit and posting it on-site where it is visible to your customer.
#7. Reflects your credibility and reputation in the community and industry
#8. Keeps you in good standing with jurisdiction – City Inspectors talk amongst one another and have keen insights in the industry where they eventually identify by stopping by job sites or find out through other means which contractors that do not regularly pull permits.
#9. Helps to obtain jurisdiction inspection of completed construction and receiving Certificate of Occupancy (CO) – without a building permit, a City inspection and CO will not be obtained. And if you call for an inspection without pulling a permit, your costs on the project will drastically increase.
#10. Denotes in compliance with local jurisdiction building codes and regulations.
In conclusion:
As a contractor, you can be on the right side of industry regulations by pulling building permits and when doing so your gain several benefits as the ones noted above. And, if by chance you get so busy and truly missed obtaining a building permit, there are corrective measures you can take to still pull a permit and contacting helpful Building Permit Expediters like the PermitUsNow team one such way. Building Permit Expediters are knowledgeable of building codes, have established relationships and many have experience in handling all kinds of permitting scenarios. Do you have any other benefits for pulling a building permit? Connect with me on Linkedin. #BuildSafe