I thought it was strange when I heard it but the more I thought about the better it sounded. These replacements were usually done without any permits at all.
Since there was really no zoning or plan review issues I thought it was a elegant solution. The up side for the county was that they had the money in hand ahead of time. If the code enforcement guy got a "neighbor" call(the way most guys get caught), there was a permit card posted and they had the recorder message as a cross check. Occasionally they actually did inspect this, just often enough to keep the contractor honest.
