Permits and inspections, contractor licensing and bonds, mechanic's liens, change orders, architectural review, and work that was never permitted.
Encroachments are resolved through agreement, removal or legal doctrines that can move the effective boundary. Party walls are governed by agreement or by law depending on the state. Long-standing intrusions can mature into adverse possession or a prescriptive easement, which is why ignoring one is not a neutral choice.
Unpermitted work is discovered through appraisals, permit history searches and inspections. Most states require disclosure of known material defects, and concealment carries the worst consequences. The realistic routes are retroactive permitting, restoration, a price adjustment, or selling with full disclosure to a buyer who accepts it.
Local historic designation requires review of exterior changes visible from the public way, through a certificate of appropriateness. Standards focus on retaining historic material and matching detail, ordinary maintenance is usually exempt, and demolition by neglect is separately enforceable.
Contractor licensing is a state function with wide variation in scope and classification. A license verifies qualification and, usually, a bond; the bond is a small pool that pays claimants in order, not an insurance policy. Verification means checking the board's record, the classification, the bond and the insurance separately.
An owner-builder permit lets a homeowner act as their own general contractor. It removes the licensing requirement for that project but attaches employer duties, insurance exposure, disclosure obligations at resale, and a bar on using the exemption as a front for an unlicensed builder.
Building inspections run in a fixed sequence tied to construction stages, with each stage approving work before it is concealed. The certificate of occupancy is the final approval that makes a building lawfully usable, and it is a condition of insurance, financing and lawful occupation rather than a formality.
Preliminary notices preserve the right to claim a mechanic's lien later. They are served early in a project by parties without a direct contract with the owner, on deadlines measured from first furnishing. Missing the deadline usually destroys the lien right, and receiving one tells an owner exactly who can claim against the property.
Allowances are sums included in a contract for items not yet selected, reconciled against actual cost. Substitutions replace a specified product with another. Both are legitimate mechanisms, and both produce disputes when the contract does not say how the reconciliation and approval work.
Architectural review is a contractual power created by an association's recorded covenants. Approval standards are often broad, but the process is constrained by the documents, by state statutes on notice and hearings, and by a duty to act reasonably and consistently rather than arbitrarily.
Stop-work orders halt construction where work proceeds without a permit, departs from approved plans, or presents a safety hazard. They are lifted by curing the violation and paying fees, sometimes after a hearing. Costs fall on the owner through delay, standby charges and schedule loss rather than through the fine itself.
Retainage is a percentage withheld from each payment until completion. Most states cap the percentage and set release deadlines through prompt payment statutes, with interest and fee-shifting for late release. Substantial completion, not perfection, is usually the trigger, and the punch list is what defines the remainder.
