OK, I know gov. officials can be and are sometimes corrupt. But, this little idea of the inspectors being "fee grabbers" get's under my skin. I've been a working on houses in middle TN for over 25 years as a sub. Mostly trimming, but also framing, building decks and porches, and remodeling. I'm usually on the job from somewhere in the middle up to the very end at closing. I've NEVER seen this. I think your sub who said this is full of hooey!
Shane, I think you're right on. If I had any issue with the inspectors, it would be that some of them here haven't been strict enough.
For example, when the original framer/construction manager built our interior walls without overlapping the top plates, a clear violation in the code book our county uses, I asked the inspector about them. She said that while she preferred that the top plates overlapped, she was not going to require the framer to fix them. I really wanted her to fail the framing rough-in in order to help me when I would have to confront the framer. But the inspector in that case was of zero assistance to me, the homeowner who wanted to build his house up to the code standards. There were some other framing issues that were more serious that she also allowed, even after I brought them to her attention.
The same lady is the one who inspected our house yesterday for our certificate of occupancy. She might have been in the house 15 minutes at most. She looked at our front porch, spent about 2 minutes walking through our basement, talked to us about her Christmas shopping woes, talked to me about her issues with the front porch and then left. She did not look in any of the bedrooms, any of the baths, the laundry room, or the office. The plumber could have violated code a hundred different ways and she would have never known, nor did she care.
If the inspectors are going to allow extremely poor building practices and intentionally ignore serious code violations, then what purpose are they serving other than to bring revenue in to the county/state in the form of fees and taxes? When you look at the government incentives to bring in revenue by giving speeding tickets, parking tickets, and putting up red light cameras, I don't think it is a far stretch to see governments trying to shore up revenues in the form of permits, inspection fees, and re-inspection fees, especially in a slow construction economy. Let's face it, all you need to do is find one code violation in each house and you have just doubled the inspection fee revenue for the county.
Based on the county inpections we have had, my conclusion is that the building permittting and inpection process is primarilly motivated by being a source of revenue for the local government here. The permit ensures a government official can come inside your house and evaluate your house for property tax purposes. Without the permitting process, the government officials could not enter your house because of the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights ammendments regarding improper search and seizure.
On the other hand, the state electrical inspector seemed very conscientious and intent on performing a good inspection. I'll give details about his inspection shortly. I have to say that I really appreciated the obvious effort he made to ensure our electrical work was done safely.
Shane - I agree with you about inspectors at least the ones in our county..When I built our house as my own GC..I got along fine with all of the inspectors and appreciated their help..I had a couple of subs that absolutely hated the inspectors and thought them to be the enemy...I watched those subs extra close...We got our CO with no problem...The few times the inspectors found a problem..the subs I mentioned would claim the changes were not needed that the inspector was being picky...I told them to make the changes and all was fine. There was never any re-inspection fee involved and no sign that any of the inspectors were looking for any pay off..That was just my experience.
I did not take it that the term "fee grabber" implied inspectors were trying to get payoffs but rather that the inspectors are being used by the government as a source of income.
Just my opinion.
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