Pay for permits now or pay later. In general, most buyers will expect that kind of update to be permitted.

Save yourself the headache when you sell. Get a permit.

Get the permit. When I was buying my house my realtor told me the basement was finished a year after the house, first thing I asked was to see the permits. If it had not been permitted I would not have bought the house. The inspector caught a few places they cut corners on electrical and had to fix.

Skip the headache in later years, if you decide to sell. Get the permits. I wonder why the contractors dont want permits. Without permits, they dont have to deal with inspectors. I would get the permit, just to make sure, I got the inspections.

What is the scope of work? What is the reason not to go through the permit process.

Where I live they want everything permitted, but many people do not get permits for everything. Depends on if the work is going to impact the taxes. Our city increases your taxes with every "improvement" that you have done, so depending on the work that is done people may or may not have it permitted and have the city involved.

I would get permits for something like adding a bathroom to the basement. Need inspections and need assurance that it is done right. I would do that first and have it completed before I did the rest of the finishing of the basement as a fully finished space would increase my "living space" and would increase my taxes. The permits don't cost much, but the additional taxes quickly add up and have to paid year in, year out forever.

I live on the Eastside, too, and I can tell you that the only thing you might be able to do without a permit is build, say, an outbuilding of less than 200 sqft, and even that would still have to conform to code even though no permit is required. Any contractor that tells you a permit is not needed for you project because you "are just extending" is incompetent. The likely result could be poorly constructed, and non-conforming which may cost you a lot of money downstream to fix when you sell. One question you have to answer on the real estate disclosure form when you sell is: "Has any work been done on the house for which a permit was not obtained?" If you lie and a buyer finds you have done so, you open yourself up to a lawsuit. The choice is up to you: permit now, or major headaches later. And make sure to cross off your list any contractor who suggests you don't need a permit for 700 sqft of finished space, unless you're just hanging sheetrock or putting down carpet and not adding any electrical/plumbing/heating.

Permits result in higher taxes. We do a lot DIY without permits,however, we are fortunate to have licensed trade folk in family. So everything is done to code. Further, we never ask about permits when purchasing previous homes, similarly, never been asked abt it when selling. However, homes we have purchased, and sold are 20+ yrs old, so that might make a difference too. This was all internal work, Putting in an addition, would necessitate permits.

If I was adding an addition, I would never do it without proper permits. And I'd NEVER trust a company that says I don't need one. That screams to me that they do shoddy work.

It seems your terminology might be muddling up interpretations of what you are doing. So you don't have a new addition, you are simply finishing a little more portion of the unfinished section of existing basement, to coincide with the already finished portion. You haven't really said the scope of work, so it could be just an open rec room with lighting, receptacles, and finishes applied, or an endless pool with a glass bottom to the underworld. If your tax assessment specifies how much of your basement was finished, then that could affect things. If your tax assessment doesn't even mention the basement being finished, then no one knows if the "extended" finished portion was installed yesterday or 10 years ago with the first finishing. In fact, your existing portion of finished basement may not have ever had a permit to begin with.

The OP probably figured it out, or left the bldg. in pasr 2 days.

When I bought my 40-year-old house, I went and looked at every improvement and checked the permits. When I sold a different 40-year-old house, the buyers checked all the improvements with the filed and completed permits. I don't trust handyman Harry to comply with local codes. The last thing I would want is something to happen and the insurance company decides that unpermitted work caused the problem. It could be something as simple as an improperly installed light switch when they finished the basement.

In our area permits aren't intended to keep folks from pursuing DIY projects. Homeowners can pull permits, too. They just need to have their work inspected by codes compliance folks.

"If it had not been permitted I would not have bought the house. The inspector caught a few places they cut corners on electrical and had to fix."

So it wasn't permitted and yet you hired an inspector with an eye toward purchasing?

lol