[McNeil]

This is a 90 day program from June 2 to September 1

County Launches Campaign to Increase Awareness About Building Permits - 24KB - 6/8/2009

This is great! City of Las Vegas, where are you? I'd like to see you follow the county's example as I'm sure you'd be helping many of your cititzens.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by McNeil

This is a 90 day program from June 2 to September 1

County Launches Campaign to Increase Awareness About Building Permits - 24KB - 6/8/2009

This is great! City of Las Vegas, where are you? I'd like to see you follow the county's example as I'm sure you'd be helping many of your cititzens.

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It is not great. It is to be approached with great caution. I would suggest a lawyer and a knowledgable contractor before I got anywhere near it.

You can easily pay two or three times the cost of the original work to get an improvement permitted. It is easy to get something permitted when you do it as you build. It can be right out of Kafka if it is already up..

Often better to sell it unpermitted than to fix it.

[McNeil]

Here I was thinking they wanted to help homeowners by omitting fines on an unpermitted project. From what you've said, it sounds like they might be trying to trick homeowners. I'm not saying they are but it sure seems like it.
Maybe someone from the county will comment.

[olecapt]

The County means well. But this is tricky territory. The rub with permitting after the fact is that it is subject to the judgement of the county inspector. He can believe how you did the underlayers...he can accept your photorgraphs of what you did. But he can also insist upon seeing the reinforcing rods in the concrete under your addition. Now how do you propose to show him the steel reinforcement buried in the concrete?

Before you permit anything that is completed get a contractor who has done this before and have him assay your risk.

Rule #1 is have it permitted when built.

Rule #2 is that if you violate rule #1 be very careful trying to fix it.

[Buzz123]

They are once again offering amnesties for doing construction w/o a building permit:
Amnesty deadline nears for homeowners with unapproved construction | Las Vegas Review-Journal

[BBMW]

If you don't permit your changes, they'll likely find it when you go to sell, then fixing the paperwork will hold up your transaction.

I went through this when I sold my folks house. They found changes back from the '60s to the '80s that were the paperwork was either incomplete, or never done. I'm sure my folks had no idea. This was not in NV, but I doubt it's any different there.

Also, make sure you contractor does the paperwork correctly, so you don't have a ticking bureaucratic timebomb that can go off years, even decades later.