[Destroyer]

The damn thing of it is that no one seems to remember why permits were ever needed in the first place. Back in the 30's my grandfather built his house by himself (a 2 story colonial that is still standing today and sold a few years ago for over $500,000) in Bellville, NJ. Number of permits required to do the job? Zero!
But in our history there were crooked contractors that would do a job with shoddy work or materials and the homeowner would get less than what they paid for. They complained to the town fathers trying to get some relief and the idea was born to allow or "permit" contractors to do work on a persons house and then subject that work to a final inspection by a professional before the contractor could get paid. It was to protect the homeowner from bad contractors. But as time rolled on, towns began to realize that this could be a good revenue stream for the town, so they increased the fees to not only cover the paperwork and the inspection but to make a bit of a profit also. At the same time they began increasing the laws to cover more and more items, and they changed the laws to require that not only contractors but also the homeowners had to get those permits. (All ostensibly to "protect" the homeowner from shoddy work). So the obvious ones like framing and electrical and plumbing gave way to things like installing kitchen cabinets, sheetrock, hot water heaters, sheds, decks etc., etc. Things that the average homeowner used to be able to do all by themselves without a permit. The towns keep raking in the money and increasing the items that need their permission to be done. I would not be at all surprised to someday read that you need a permit to paint your house, and you must first submit the color choices to the town for their approval. total bull$hit!!

By the way... in Wayne, if you rent your house, you need to get it re-inspected (cost $100) every time you change renters.