Buying a house with inlaw quarters that has NO permits

 I'm looking to buy a house with an inlaw quarter that has no permits.
Apparently, the owner converted the 4 car tandem garage into a huge
inlaw quarter with bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room.

If I buy the house, would I have an issue getting permits for it? This
house is in the city of San Jose (west SJ to be exact).

Also, I'm thinking of having a 4 or 6 car garage built with permits.
If the inspector sees the other structure, will or can he force me to
tear it down?

Also, is there a limit on the number of structures on the property? I'm
sure it varies from locale to locale (I'm in San jose, CA).  If I build
another garage, there will be a total of three structures (main house,
the garage converted to inlaw's quarter, and the 4 or 6 car garage).

THanks,
GH

  Don't ask us. Go directly to the building department. And certainly
don't buy this property before working it out.
For that extensive of construction I think a reputable building
department would need to remove some things to do any type of
inspection. The owner would be responsible for having all the work done
of course and fixing any violations. Trust me, there will be many. Then
they want to put the new work on the tax rolls and assess penalties
depending on when the work was done.
Think about walking away while you can.

 Just curious.  How do you know there were no permits?  Was that
disclosed in the listing?  I have to agree with the above advice.  If
this was done with no permits, it is a big problem.  This was a major
conversion and if the town finds it, they would at the minimum require
that it be inspected and brought up to code.  As was pointed out, that
could very well require taking a lot of it apart.  It's also possible
that depending on the zoning, the conversion may be totally illegal to
begin with and the whole thing might have to go.

As for adding more structures on the property, that depends entirely on
the zoning and building codes.  There are issues like max sq ft allowed
for a given size lot, set back's allowed from the various property
lines, etc.  And if you do go about this, it's likely they will
discover the existing conversion in the application process.

I see 3 choices:

get this all straightened out upfront, which isn't going to be quick or
easy
bid it to allow for the worst case scenario
run from the deal.

 
see http://www.sanjoseca.gov/planning/zoning/secondunit.htm

In a nutshell, second units are not currently allowed in San Jose,
and have been explicitly disallowed since 1984. It appears that there
was no formal policy in place prior to 1984, but it is likely that
they have never been formally allowed.


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No big deal. Are you planning on renting it out?



Why would you want to? If you did, it depends entirely on the quality of
the construction.



More likely he would make you bring it up to code if it is not. Of course,
you can just not get a permit for the new structure either.



This is entirely a matter of what your locale allows. However, you must be
a wealthy person to need a 6 car garage. Therefore, spend a little cash
and find out what an attorney has to say.


Dimitri