What is an Open Permit?

All right, you're under contract, everything is going just as planned, and you get a call from the title company - ring ring - you have an open permit on your property. What? What the heck is an open permit on my property?

Well, back in 1998, when you put up that new fence - which isn't a new fence anymore, I guess - but when you put the new fence up, you never closed the permit because you pulled it by yourself. It happens all the time. Roofers forget to close out permits, A/C guys forget to close out permits. Well, guess what? You now have an open permit on your property. That's a problem.

You cannot close a property with an open permit without a serious amount of waivers, so here's what we do. Your trustee real estate agent gets on the phone, either calls the city or the county or whoever the permit's with, and you find out how to close it. In some cases, you got to pull a new permit and then close that one out - that's the whole crazy thing - or we get the contractor to just send in a request. So, they have done their work, City of Titusville comes out, or your County comes out, signs off on the work, closes it out.

I had this happen once, and it was within 24 hours of our closing date. We kicked butt trying to get it closed, but we did it because who you work with matters. Edna Wilson, your Hometown Realtor, as Hometown as Apple Pie.