Selling a House With Code Violations
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About selling your house
A letter from the city about peeling paint, a broken porch, an unpermitted addition or tall grass can snowball. Deadlines pass, fines pile up, and before long the violation is a line item on a title search. Many owners assume they have to fix everything before they can sell. Sometimes that is true, but often it is not. Here is how code violations affect a sale and what your options are.
What counts as a code violation
Code violations cover a wide range: exterior maintenance, broken windows, unsafe stairs or railings, missing smoke detectors, plumbing or electrical hazards, overgrown lots, trash, work done without a permit, or an illegal unit in a basement or attic. They can come from routine inspections, neighbor complaints, a rental registration program, or a point-of-sale inspection. The office that handles them is usually the city or county code enforcement, building or housing department.
How violations affect a sale
Unpermitted work
Additions, finished basements, decks and converted garages built without permits are common, especially in older houses that have changed hands several times. Unpermitted work can surface during a buyer's inspection, an appraisal or a municipal inspection, and fixing it may mean opening walls, getting plans drawn and paying permit fees after the fact. In some cases the city requires the work to be removed. Tell a buyer what you know, and we will factor it into the offer instead of asking you to legalize it first.
Your options
You can correct the violations yourself, get the city's sign-off and then sell. You can talk to the city about deadlines or payment of fines, which is often possible if you are communicating and making progress. Or you can sell the house to a buyer who takes on the violations, where local rules allow it. Which one makes sense depends on the cost of the fixes, the fines accruing and how much time you have.
Selling to us with open violations
Common questions
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Last reviewed: September 2026. General information only, not legal or tax advice. Rules vary by county and municipality and change over time; talk to a local real estate attorney or title company before you decide.
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