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jimbone007
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jun 2019 02:05pm
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Hey Everyone,
I'm new to the forum and was looking for some wisdom hopefully from other people in my area.
I own 8 acres in northeast pa by the ny border and I have a mobile home on it. I started to build a cabin 12x24 with a gambrel roof and loft.Its on 5 4x4 skids 2x8 pt floor with 3/4 pt plywood and 2x6 walls with 2x8 floor joists on 2nd level and 2x8 roof trusses. I didn't pull permits or look into code. I have a lot of construction experience and did a lot of research( cabin probably exceeds code). So I'm thinking of reaching out to code enforcers and seeing if what I built is okay without a permit or inspections in my township and if it isn't how I can correct it. My questions are :
Is this a good idea?
How should I go about doing this?
what is likely to happen? ( anyone that has had experience with this in pa I'd like to hear your story)
Thanks in advance for any replies
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PA_Bound
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jun 2019 10:19pm
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If you are not planning to live in the cabin or use it as a permanent address, have you considered pulling a "recreational cabin affidavit" for your project? Pennsylvania has a (unique?) certification that allows recreational cabins to be built outside of the UCC permitting process. There are restrictions to how this property can be used (see below), and I believe the deed is altered to indicate that the cabin was not built to code to protect any future buyers. But for true cabins it can save a bunch of hassle.
Restrictions include: (The cabin...)
1. ...will be utilized for recreational activities only.
2. ...will not be utilized as a domicile or residence by myself or any other person for
any period of time.
3. ...will not be used for any commercial purposes.
4. ...will not exceed two stories in height (excluding the basement, if any).
5. ...will not be used as a place of employment.
6. ... will not be a mailing address for bills or correspondence.
7. ...will not be listed as any individual’s place of residence on a tax return, driver’s license, vehicle registration or voter registration.
Other regulatory requirements are still applicable, including Zoning and sewage permit requirements.
You can Google, or search the website for your county/township, for more information.
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KinAlberta
Member
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# Posted: 30 Jun 2019 12:19am - Edited by: KinAlberta
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Brilliant!
Just last week I was trying to think of how something like this could be done.
Here in Alberta I sense that people no longer support local economies because of all the gold plating requirements. In my dad’s day people built basic cabins. Today they are essentially second homes and at far higher cost.
So what do people do? Take on a major bureaucratic code meeting project or just say screw it and instead hop on a plane and spend their money in some foreign land.
I further suspect huge huge proportion of the average person’s disposable income leaks out of our economy* and never comes back in any other form. So our province borrows and borrows and borrows billions of dollars every year to spend and keep people working.
So building codes and a whole lot of other regulations should not greatly deter people from spending locally if it means that they then just send their money elsewhere.
* I think is in the range of $3-4 billion/yr Albertans spend on foreign travel. If that were spent - at home - the multiplier effect on jobs through spending would be even greater.
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 30 Jun 2019 12:46am
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Quoting: KinAlberta ...and instead hop on a plane and spend their money in some foreign land.
But---
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.â€
–Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (1869)
I agree with that.
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jimbone007
Member
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# Posted: 30 Jun 2019 07:21pm
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Thanks for the reply PAbound. I did come across the rca in another post and not sure if that's what I want to do because I don't want my deed to the land tarnished causing it to lose value.All I really want to do is run 100 amp service out to it and not get hit with any problems from that or building it. I also plan to build a house so I know that it won't go unnoticed.
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 30 Jun 2019 08:01pm
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If you plan on further building I believe you should now go and tell the blog dept what you have done so far and ask what to do next.
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