That's the problem. There's no permit on the roof. The seller "knows" nothing.
The roof has been leaking and that prompted me to do patching jobs. No one cited me for a violation. I was told by one of the roofers who did the patching that the whole roof was not built according to code. Now I need to replace the roof as the improper (non-permitted) install has now been realized to be the culprit of all the leaks.
In essence, the roof replacement is a job to bring the house to code (helps insurance too) and prevent leaks. Obviously, I will not write this against my income without having a strong case. The IRS seems too busy to answer technical questions, so I will ask later. If they confirm this is deductible, I'll have their words documented as there are other known pieces of the house that aren't to code (it's almost 50 years old).
In the end, this will very likely just be depreciated. But I'd still like to know if costs to amend code violations are known to be in a strict sense "repairs", so I'll followup with the IRS on that.
