Builders Must Comply with Building Department Officials

By Barry Stone

Dear Barry,

Construction was just completed on our new home, but the building official would not approve the final inspection. He says an as-built permit is now needed before major corrective work can be done. The builder, we have now learned, failed to follow the plans that were engineered and approved by the county building department. He contends that he is only required to comply with the building code, not the specific standards determined by the engineer and the county. Is there any validity to his position?
--Lauren

Dear Lauren,

Your builder is completely out of step with the realities of building-code enforcement. There is an established hierarchy in the determination of construction standards, and building officials are the pinnacle of that pecking order. As the final arbiters of construction adequacy, theirs is the first and last word in the administration of building requirements. What they say goes.

The building code, on the other hand, is merely a "minimum standard" and defines itself as such in chapter one of the codebook. When the building official approves a set of plans and the engineering specifications contained therein, that is the standard to which the structure must be built. Your builder has set himself above the law and needs to be brought back down to ground level. If he won't comply with mandates set forth by the building official, a complaint should be filed with the state agency that licenses contractors. Hopefully you haven't paid the final installment for the construction.

Copyright 2007 Barry Stone. Distributed by Inman News.