Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

The fair market value of a house is based upon many factors. Many homes have had work done without permits; for example, in some areas almost every house has had a garage converted into another room. While doing so was "illegal" value still has been added because the local public entity is not likely to do anything if it ever finds out and if it does anything it probably will involve a fine and not removing the non-permit work. You can lower your offer or try to add language that if you every suffer any sanctions from the local entitly the seller has to reimburse you, but how are you going to find them iln a few years.

There is a great deal of variation from county to county in quality of record-keeping and ease of retrieval of permit records. Lawyers discover this through subpoenaing permits and permit-application files for properties in litigation. There also seems to be some variation in quality and accessibility of records depending on the decade when the work was done. There are periods of good rcord-keeping and periods of complacency. Finally, counties and even portions of counties experience different levels of enforcement. A rancher in a remote valley is not going to be subjected to the same level of inspection and penalty as someone with a townhouse in a relatively upper-class or high density urban area. An experienced buyer's broker should be able to give you practical tips but of course they also have a duty to disclose any possible down-side risk they know about.