Doing a complete tear down and rebuild of your house sounds good, in theory.
The recently approved Demolition of Buildings Law went into effect in Montgomery County this past August. While I have an entire rant about how poorly thought out and executed this law is, that won't help us today. For now I'm just going to teach you how to go about getting your demolition permit in Montgomery County.
The new law codifies the term “demolish” to mean removing 67% of existing exterior walls, exclusive of the foundation. If you exceed this limit you need a demolition permit, and then a new construction permit for what you want to create.
Conventional wisdom says that it's better to keep what you have and build around it, and it's often possible to create the home you need while working within the constraints of your existing home and the demolition limits. If you can avoid doing this much demolition it will make your life a lot easier.
That said, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to raze an existing house to build new (none of which the new law considered). Just know that when it comes to permitting this sort of project you're going to pay a price in terms of added oversight and everything that goes along with it. I am doing this right now with my own house, which you can learn more about right here.
To get a demolition permit in Montgomery County you'll need to pass close to a dozen separate reviews. For all of these you need to apply to different utilities, service providers, local governments and the Department of Permitting Services (DPS) itself in order to obtain the required letters or permits. Once you have collected everything you send it to Department of Permitting Services (DPS) for review and approval.
When I submitted all the different certifications and disconnects to DPS I also provided a cover letter stating that the review item was complete and listed any special conditions that applied to my property.
How to Apply for a Demolition Permit
You'll have to go to the Montgomery County eServices site and create an account in order to access the permit application pages. The permit fee is about $150.
In a day or two you should receive an email from a Permit Technician. This person will be your point of contact at DPS.
Demolition Permit Required Documents
The reviews you'll need for your demolition permit are listed here:
- Electrical Disconnect
- Extermination Approval
- Gas Co Disconnect
- Municipality Approval
- Roadside Tree Law
- Sediment Control
- Telephone Disconnect Notice
- Bond
- WSSC
- Written Notice Mail Date
Let's cover each of these in more detail. These are listed in the order you'll see them on the Permit Status page, but you should be working on all of these simultaneously. All of these assume you're also building a new house on the same lot. If you're just razing a garage some of this won't apply.
ELECTRICAL DISCONNECT
You’ll need a licensed electrician to apply to Disconnect & Swing Service to Temporary Post. This is about $1,000 and you’ll need a second reconnection permit once you’re ready to power up the new house. After Pepco has completed the work they'll send you a letter stating that electrical service has been removed. Send that letter to DPS to pass your review.
Note that you will have to stop your electrical service before Pepco does the swing. They'll create an account for you to be billed for electricity used during construction. At some point during construction you'll reconnect power to the house and get a new Pepco account.
Extermination Approval
You need a licensed exterminator to certify there are no rodents in your house or crawl space. I used American Pest.
Make sure your exterminator meets this requirement: Licensed with the Maryland Department of Agriculture in the category of “Industrial, Institutional, Structural & Related – Rodent”
They’ll come to your house and inspect for signs of rodent activity. Anything they find, including mouse poop, counts as “rodent activity”. This inspection is about $150. If they find any rodent activity they’ll need to provide “treatment” i.e. mouse traps, which is another $250. They check those once a week until there are no signs of rodent activity. So if they set the trap on Thursday, catch a mouse on Thursday night, then come back the following Thursday, they have then observed rodent activity and need to continue treatment.
Gas Company Disconnect
You’ll need to submit a Washington Gas Service Abandonment/Demolition Request. It’s a bit easier if you plan to use gas in the new house, as all the work can (most likely) be done on your property. At our project we permanently abandoned gas, which usually requires work under the street or sidewalk, and coms with an 8-12 week lead time. Make sure to get this application started ASAP! There was no fee from Washington Gas for the abandonment.
You'll receive a letter from Washington Gas stating that the work was complete, and showing a sketch of the site plan where gas was disconnected. Send this to DPS.
As a homeowner you can apply for this yourself.
Municipality Approval
If you live in an incorporated township you might need a letter from the city that acknowledges the work. In Takoma Park the letter is mostly automated, and you can get your Takoma Park Municipality Letter at that link.
Not sure about the process for other townships, but if you live somewhere like Kensington or Chevy Chase Village or somewhere else that has their own building department chances are you’ll need a municipality letter and possible a completely separate building permit. Note that Municipality Letters are NOT permits, just a notice that the city has been informed.
Roadside Tree Law
I don’t have a lot of experience with this, but if there are no trees in the public right of way (the grass strip on the other side of the sidewalk) then this requirement will be waived.
You will have email your Permit Tech and they'll tell you which person at Land Development to contact for completing this review.
Sediment Control
You’ll need a sediment control permit. If you’re getting a demolition permit prior to rebuilding a new house you’ll need the sediment control permit for the new house, and you can use the same one for the demolition permit. This one is an actual permit from DPS with it's own drawing requirements and approval process.
The drawings for this permit can be done by a civil engineer or a good local architect if the project is small enough. Depending on the size of the new construction you might qualify as a Small Land Disturbing Activity, which would be great. Permit fee for a Small Land Disturbance Activity is $880.
Telephone Disconnect
This is cable service, and all I have to say is good luck. In a world of bureaucracy and automated or outsourced customer service, Verizon have proven themselves exceptionally inept.
Bond
You need to post a bond to ensure the work is completed. This is one potentially big disconnect between the intent of the Demolition of Buildings Law and what actually happens in the real world. The initial intent of a demolition permit was for structures that were being razed. The county wants to ensure that the site is clear after the work is done and that the applicant doesn’t leave any dangerous conditions in what theoretically is an empty field. From the demolition submittal guidelines: after demolition or removal, clear all construction and demolition debris; (3) restore the established grade of the surrounding land
The county has not provided any guidance on the standard for considering those items complete when the demolition project could leave 1/3 of the exterior walls and the entire foundation intact.
Anyway, you need a bond. The best thing to do here is to hire a builder or demolition contractor who is bonded, i.e. they have a surety that will post a performance bond on their behalf. The amount of the bond must match the amount you claimed they demolition will cost when you applied for the demo permit and you may need to provide a signed contract for the demolition work. The cost to buy the bond could be 1% – 5% of the cost that is covered by the bond.
At the end of construction the bond will be released to whomever applied for the demo permit. If that was you, and a builder posted the bond you’ll have to provide a letter to DPS allowing them to release the bond directly to whomever actually paid for it.
You could also do a cash bond, but then the County is holding on to lots of your money.
Here's the official page that described the different types of bonds.
WSSC
This one could be slightly complicated, as WSSC might not consider your new house a new construction project (which would be a good thing for you).
Calling WSSC is the best place to start. Worst case scenario is you have to completely remove water service and install new service and a new meter. Pending the quantity of fixtures you intend to install in the new house, AND the water service requirements for a sprinkler system, which you will need in the new house, you may have to increase the size of your water service line anyway.
BUT…if your meter is outside of your property and the service size is sufficient for the new work and you are the current WSSC account holder and you’ll be occupying the house after new construction, then you might get away with a simple cap off instead of a complete disconnect. For a cap off just make sure the water service and sewer lateral are capped off in an area that is safe from the demolition work. And make sure to note all this stuff in your cover letter to DPS.
Written Mail Notice
This is actually just a sign inspection. A few business days after applying for your demo permit you'll receive an orange sign which needs to be posted in your yard. You'll probably need to email your permit tech to have them schedule the sign inspection, which consists of a DPS building inspector driving by your property to ensure your house
After Receiving Your Demo Permit
Get to work! You finally get to demolish your house. Keep in mind you'll need ADDITIONAL permits during construction that your builder should pull for you, like a dumpster permit.
Of course, I'm available to help coordinate all this stuff, but I'd much prefer you just call me to talk about designing your own custom home!