What Can You Do Without a Permit?

Before you start that weekend project . . .

"The e-mail Tom Scholtens sent out was meant to settle the matter of which repair jobs will require permits in the city of Charleston. But amid the nods of agreement, there are still shrugs of frustration from contractors working in the city. With his department director’s OK, Scholtens—the city’s chief building and fire code official—decreed that permits will not be required on the listed items in repair or maintenance applications, as long as the work is not being done in the commercial or historic districts on the exteriors of the buildings.

Scholtens warned that the list could shrink or expand and that 'this attempt at simplifying our system does not give anyone the right to do a wholesale remodel on a property without a permit or to violate the licensing laws or the building codes of South Carolina.'"

For the full Charleston Regional Business Journal article: http://www.charlestonbusiness.com/pub/13_21/news/10550-1.html

For the city of Charleston building inspections website, with all sorts of forms and regulations spelled out: http://www.charlestoncity.info/dept/content.aspx?nid=249