Can You Sell a House With Unpermitted Work in Maryland?

Plenty of Maryland houses have a finished basement, a deck, a converted garage or rewired kitchen that nobody pulled a permit for. Sometimes the current owner did it; often a previous owner did, and the seller only finds out when a buyer asks. This article covers how unpermitted work comes up, what you are asked to disclose, and your realistic options. For a sale that also involves open citations or notices, see our guide to selling a Maryland house with code violations.

How unpermitted work usually comes to light

• Permit history. Buyers, agents and appraisers can compare the house with the county’s permit records. In Prince George’s County, DPIE offers a permits and inspections search with status and history.
• The listing or tax record. A basement bedroom or extra bathroom that isn’t reflected in the SDAT record or permit history raises questions.
• Home inspections. Inspectors often notice amateur wiring, a deck without proper footings or plumbing that doesn’t match the age of the house.
• Appraisals. An appraiser may treat unpermitted living space differently from permitted space, which can affect the value a lender will lend against.

What Maryland’s disclosure form asks

For most sales of a one-to-four unit home, Real Property §10-702 requires the seller to give the buyer either the Maryland Residential Property Disclosure Statement or the Disclaimer Statement. The current disclosure form asks, if you or a contractor made improvements to the property, whether the required permits were issued by the county or local permitting office and whether the improvements passed all required inspections. It also asks about zoning violations and open violations.

Choosing the disclaimer (“as is”) form doesn’t remove every duty. A seller using it must still disclose latent defects they actually know about: material defects a buyer couldn’t reasonably find by a careful visual inspection that would pose a direct threat to the health or safety of the buyer or an occupant. Hidden wiring done without a permit can fall into that category. If you aren’t sure how to answer, ask a Maryland real estate attorney before you sign.

Your three realistic options

Permitting after the fact isn’t always simple. Prince George’s County’s permit attestation warns that penalties of $1,000 per day can be assessed for working without a permit or outside its scope, and a finished basement alone requires an application and floor plans. If the house needs other repairs too, compare the full cost of fixing it with an as-is sale in our guide to selling a house that needs major repairs.

City permits on top of county permits

Prince George’s County notes that some projects need county permits and others need a permit from one of its 27 municipalities, and requirements vary by town. Hyattsville is a good example: the city requires both a city and a county permit for a new or wider driveway, and limits paving to 25% of a front yard. Our Hyattsville home-selling page explains how to tell whether a house with a Hyattsville address is actually inside city limits. If an inspector has already written up the work, our post on open code violations at a Prince George’s County sale covers what happens next.

Before you list

1. Search the county (and city, if any) permit history for the address.
2. List every addition or renovation you know of, with dates and who did the work.
3. Gather any contractor invoices, warranties or partial permit records.
4. Decide which of the three options fits your timeline and budget, then answer the disclosure form accurately.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Permit rules differ by county and city; check with the local permit office and talk to a Maryland real estate attorney about your disclosures.