From: "chris" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Buying a house with inlaw quarters that has NO permits
Date: 23 May 2005 08:10:02 -0700
   posting-account=sQpNBgwAAADXXyywLUxlRYt22OUH7X8g

All of the posts above definitely are things to consider. My biggest
concern would be in the event of a fire or any other type of situation
where your homeowners insurance would say that this was not a permitted
structure and we don't have to pay for it. This would definitely be
true if the fire was caused by defective wiring.

Also if someone gets hurts because the building wasn't built to code
you would be sued and the homeowners insurance wouldn't cover you. And
yes I have seen a renter sue a homeowner over a stairway in a house
that was 80 years old and didn't have a hand rail. They were trying to
sue saying that the house wasn't "up to code". The only reason she
prevailed was that there had never been any remodeling done on the
house that would have required her to bring the stairway upto code and
was "grandfathered in" because the house was "upto code and permited"
when the house was built.

Chris