SOCASTEE, SC (WBTW) – Less than three months after floods subsided in Horry County, and some people are still working to rebuild their homes, but local brokers say it’s important the work is done with the right permits from the county.
“If you’re using a qualified contractor, they’re always going to pull a permit. To me that would be a red flag if a contractor doesn’t want to pull a permit,” Cherie Hardy, broker and owner of South Carolina Real Estate Network said.
Hardy has been in the industry for 18 years. She says repairing a flooded home without a permit can cause a lot of issues for the homeowner later down the road, especially if the house floods again.
“The problem you might have from not having a permit is it may disqualify someone from getting a loan if the information is pulled. There’s certain federal loans that they may not qualify for,” Hardy said.
Homeowners also may run the risk of having bad or incomplete work done.
“If it’s not done properly, there can be mold or mildew or other things behind there,” Hardy said. “We just had a home inspection on a property recently where somebody had just put sheetrock right over a screen.”
Hardy says when the inspector checked for moisture in the wall, it was five times over the normal result.
“It was almost at 100 percent because it wasn’t done properly,” Hardy said. “It cost the seller the sale of the home.”
Hardy says there is no real way for buyers to verify if permits were pulled on a house that has flooded if the seller does not disclose the information. She recommends always using a full-time realtor and getting a qualified home inspector to look at the house.
