The Building Permit - Why do I need this?

There are a number of "permissions" I need to get in order to do this little project. In truth, I really hemmed and hawed about whether to do this under the radar or not. In the end, I decided to do the whole thing 100% legal. Here are my reasons why:

• If I ever go to sell this place, I don't want any problems with any inspectors
• If there is ever a need to file an insurance claim, I don't want any problems with any inspectors
• There is electrical involved in this project. All new service off the panel needs to have a permit.
• The prior owner had an all out war with the neighbor. I suspect she would be enthusiastically continue that war with me.
• When I went to city hall to ask a few questions, they were really nice and helpful
• During the same visit to city hall, they told me they get calls every single day with neighbors ratting out other neighbors for violations and sometimes non-violations
• I am thinking about running for the board of our HOA (more on that at a later date)

So, the first set of permissions I need is from the city. They need to be certain that I am not doing anything wrong like getting too close to the neighbors or dropping the roof on my head. And I'm sure if they can bring some extra revenue in, that would be nice also.

I thought I would put that out there, before going down to city hall with my plans this afternoon.