Selling a House With Open or Expired Permits in Miami

An open permit is one that was issued but never got its final inspection. The work may be finished, but the file is not closed. An expired permit is an open permit whose time ran out; in the City of Miami, an expired permit has to be reactivated before work and inspections can continue. Unpermitted work is work that needed a permit and never had one, such as an enclosed garage or carport, an added room, a converted porch, or windows, a roof or electrical work replaced without a permit.

The first two are paperwork and inspection problems with a file number attached. The third is harder, because there is no file. The work may have to be drawn, opened up, inspected, and in some cases corrected or removed before it can be approved.

In unincorporated Miami-Dade, the county tracks work without a permit and expired permits as violations, alongside unsafe structures and other enforcement cases. That is why they appear in the county’s violation research, and why liens can be recorded for them.

Buyers, lenders, insurers and title companies each look at permits for their own reasons. A buyer wants to know the house matches what was approved. A title company usually orders a municipal lien search, which in many South Florida cities reports open or expired permits and code cases. An insurer may ask when the roof was permitted. An appraiser compares the house with the public record, and space added without a permit may not be valued the same way as permitted living area.

Miami-Dade County also puts a disclosure duty on sellers of residential property in unincorporated areas. The seller must disclose illegal construction and outstanding code violations to the buyer, in the contract or in an addendum signed the same day. The county’s required notice warns buyers that many home inspections do not check for these problems.

The City of Miami keeps its permit records in the iBuild portal. After you create an account, you can use Global Inquiry to search by process number, permit number, address or folio number. A permit’s General Info tab shows whether it is active, the project cost, and its issue and expiration dates, and the Inspections menu shows its inspection history. For a permit that is not final, iBuild has a “Why Not Final” option that explains what is still missing.

The City’s separate Lien or Violation Search ($200 per report when this guide was updated) shows liens and violations on the property, including work-without-permit cases. The Building Department also takes requests for older building records kept on microfilm. A City of Miami folio number begins with 01; if yours does not, another building department holds the records.

For property outside any city, permits are issued by Miami-Dade County’s Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources (RER). The county’s online permit search shows permits and inspection history by address or folio number. RER also does an open-permit search by email for a fee, and a violations research letter covering work without permit, expired permits, unsafe structures and related liens. The county says that research takes 10 to 20 business days.

If the property is in another Miami-Dade city, such as Hialeah, Doral, Coral Gables or Miami Beach, that city’s building department holds the permits. This can include old county permits for land that later became part of a city. Doral, for example, says expired county permits for property inside the city must be renewed with the City of Doral Building Department.

Florida law gives owners some room here. Under section 553.79(16), Florida Statutes, a property owner can close a permit even if someone else pulled it. The owner can keep the original contractor, hire a different licensed contractor, or act as an owner-builder where the law allows. If a permit has expired but its work was substantially completed, the building department can let it be closed without a new permit. A building department may also close a permit six years after it was issued, even without a final inspection, if it finds no apparent safety hazards.

In the City of Miami, an active permit can be extended once before it expires, for 180 days, through iBuild. An expired permit needs a Permit Completion, which reactivates it and gives 180 days to finish the work and pass final inspections. When the remaining work is $10,000 or less, you can request it in iBuild. Above that, the City uses a paper application signed by the contractor and notarized, and the request is reviewed by the chief for that trade. If the original contractor is gone, the owner and the new contractor both sign and check the change of contractor box.

Expect the inspector to need access and to see the work. If walls or ceilings were closed up before an inspection, the department may ask for them to be opened or for an engineer’s report. Build that time in before you set a closing date.

Work done without a permit can often be legalized with an after-the-fact permit. That usually means hiring a licensed contractor, and often an architect or engineer, to document what was built, applying for the permit, paying the fees, and passing inspections. The City of Miami’s fee schedule charges more when work started before a permit was issued: a multiple of the regular fee plus a fine.

Some work cannot be approved as built. An enclosed garage may not meet zoning or parking rules, and an addition may need structural changes. In those cases the fix can mean rebuilding part of the work or taking it out.

Florida uses the Florida Building Code statewide, and Miami-Dade and Broward are covered by its stricter High-Velocity Hurricane Zone provisions. Windows, doors, shutters and roofing used here generally need product approval for those conditions; Miami-Dade’s Product Control Section issues approvals called Notices of Acceptance. If windows or doors were installed without a permit, legalizing them may require showing they are approved products, or replacing them.

One protection helps buyers. Under section 553.79(17), a building department cannot deny a permit to, or fine, an arm’s-length buyer solely because a previous owner’s permit was never closed. That covers an old open permit. It does not cover work that never had a permit, and the department keeps its remedies against the owner and contractor named on the permit.

A buyer using a mortgage has more people to satisfy. The lender, the appraiser and the insurer may each want open permits closed or unpermitted space explained before they commit, and that can mean repairs or a delayed closing. Some loans will not go forward until it is resolved.

A cash buyer has no lender to answer to, so it can take a house with open permits or unpermitted work and handle the closeout after closing. The price will reflect the work and risk involved. The title company still runs its searches, and any recorded liens tied to permit violations are still paid at closing.

Florida Cash For Home buys houses as-is with open or expired permits and unpermitted work, along with any code cases or liens that come with them. We make a written cash offer, charge no commissions, and pay the normal closing costs. Liens and fines are paid or negotiated from the sale proceeds through the title company at closing. When title is clear, we can close in as little as 10 days, in English or Spanish.

If the only issue is a permit that needs a final inspection, closing it yourself and listing may net you more. If it is an addition built without plans, or a permit whose contractor cannot be found, compare the cost and time of fixing it with an as-is offer before you decide.