Buying a Home With an Unpermitted Addition or Garage Conversion: Where Title 24 Fits
The Energy Code attaches to a building permit application, not to a sale. Whoever legalizes the space applies now, the Commission classes conditioned space added without a permit as an addition, and the code in force on that application date governs. Size, the existing heating and the drawings decide how heavy the energy side is.
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The sale is not the trigger
Part 6 reaches a building when a permit application or renewal is filed, so closing escrow changes nothing by itself. The trigger arrives the day someone applies to legalize. The compliance manual lists obtaining a permit for an existing conditioned space added without a permit as an addition, and the same list covers a garage turned into living space.
Questions to put before the offer is final
- To the seller: is there any permit number, plan set or energy report, and how many square feet of conditioned space were added?
- To the seller: does the new space share the house system, or has someone installed its own heating or cooling?
- To the city: will it treat the space as an addition, and which compliance certificate will it accept?
The department makes the classification, so ask it in writing; the legalizing page shows what each label switches on.
What moves the cost
Size sets the form: prescriptive additions under 1,000 square feet use the CF1R-ADD-01-E, larger ones the CF1R-NCB-01-E. If the room borrows the old furnace, that equipment is left alone, yet each duct run extended from it is tested. Existing walls that now enclose newly conditioned space are treated as new, and verification of existing conditions is open only for altered components. Nobody can price the insulation and glass without drawings of what was actually built; the unpermitted work page and unknown insulation page cover that evidence.
Time and the final
The order is fixed by Section 10-103: the certificate of compliance is approved first, the permit follows, and the final of a house is not complete until installed features and documents are verified, which applies to finished work too. Give the energy step its own line in the schedule. See legalizing an old garage conversion, as-built permits and our residential reports.
Common Title 24 Questions
- What is Title 24?
- Do I need a Title 24 report?
- How much does a Title 24 report cost?
- How long does a Title 24 report take?
- What is included in a Title 24 report?
- What plans do I need to upload?
Frequently Asked Questions
The Energy Code does not decide that. It is a term of the purchase contract, so raise it with your agent before the offer is final.
The Energy Code ties to the permit application, not to the sale, so timing is a contract and local permit matter. The code in force on the day you apply will apply.
Explore Existing Buildings
- Expired Permit: Which Title 24 Code Applies?
- An Open Permit That Was Never Finaled: What the Energy Paperwork Still Needs
- Can You Reuse a Title 24 Report?
- Do You Need a Title 24 Report to Sell a House?
- Title 24 for a Permit That Was Started Under the 2022 Code
View all Existing Buildings guides → · Permits and Compliance · Title 24 guide