Why Permits Are Important for Your Basement Renovation

It’s very important that you as a homeowner get all the required permits for your Calgary basement development for three reasons:

1. To avoid any insurance problems
2. Improve your home resale value
3. Protection in knowing that your job is done right

Permits are important from an insurance point of view because if any type of fire or accident arising from work in your basement caused further damage to your home, the insurance company has “an out” if you haven’t pulled necessary permits on the work.  If such an event were ever to happen the last thing you need is your insurance company telling you that you aren’t covered because you don’t have the required permits.

Next, when you go and sell your home, a decent real estate professional or home inspector will definitely inquire about the status of required permits. If they find out that there aren’t any you can bet they will either ask for a significant price reduction, or worse, walk away from the deal.

Having the work inspected helps you know that the job is done right and to code. The inspector’s job is not to judge the quality of the work, but to make sure that it meets minimum requirements for different safety codes. There are so many little things that a contractor that doesn’t have basement specific experience can miss that will negatively affect your project.

The permits aren’t expensive or difficult to get. So make sure that whether you are doing the project yourself or contracting it out, YOU GET THE PERMITS. It is expensive and difficult to try and get them after the work is done because the inspector may require you to remove drywall.