# The right to call for an inspection



## jar546 (May 27, 2021)

Within your system and state statutes, who has the right to call for an inspection?

Can the homeowner call without the contractor's permission?


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## fatboy (May 27, 2021)

In our system, anyone can request an inspection, if you have a permit number and/or address. 

But, everyone that is listed on that permit gets an email letting them know that the inspection has been requested.


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## Pcinspector1 (May 27, 2021)

Homeowner or contractor can pull the permit, so both can call for inspections. 

Yes, the homeowner can call without the contractor's permission, we will issue an HVAC permit to the contractor and the contractor will tell the homie to call for a rough-in/final inspection cuz their done with the project. I do have a few permits in the file where I haven't heard anything …..crickets.


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## JCraver (May 27, 2021)

I don't care who calls me, I'll go if I'm asked so long as there's an active permit.

Just personally - I don't know if "right" is the right word.  If I own a place and willingly want the jurisdiction it's in to come inspect something, the contractor who's working on it has no "right" to complain about it.  It's my house - I don't need any contractors permission for anything.


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## tmurray (May 27, 2021)

JCraver said:


> I don't care who calls me, I'll go if I'm asked so long as there's an active permit.
> 
> Just personally - I don't know if "right" is the right word.  If I own a place and willingly want the jurisdiction it's in to come inspect something, the contractor who's working on it has no "right" to complain about it.  It's my house - I don't need any contractors permission for anything.


Completely agree with this. Contractor should have no right to prevent an inspection from happening on property that does not belong to them.

The only innocent issue I can see with this is the homeowner calling pre-emptively where the contractor knows that it is not ready for an inspection yet.


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## Joe.B (May 27, 2021)

I'm fortunate to be in a small town and the management encourages a "public service" attitude. Anybody can call me for an inspection, any time, even without a building permit. We don't have a code enforcement department so I am often asked to inspect rentals, or take photos of overgrown lots, or meet with neighbors to discuss concerns. Often I will meet a home owner or contractor before they even submit plans to help make sure they can even do the work they are interested in. We get quite a few "owner-builder" projects and they will often sub out work so I could get a call from the plumber or electrician instead of the owner, whatever they need. Rarely does anyone waste my time, and it's obvious when they really don't know what they're doing. I never alert any other parties to an inspection. It gets scheduled, inspection happens, on to the next. So far there have been no issues of stepping on toes, it's all worked out.


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## TheCommish (May 28, 2021)

We allow home owner permits in Mass. they are often a pain in the a$$.

1) The contractor is lazy, not licensed,  not insured and or not registered (pick any or all), tells the home owner they can save a bunch of money by getting the permit or says the permit is in the truck. HO takes out the permit calls for inspection and the job is not correct, HO is now the responsibly party does not understand the issue, several communications occur, contractor is unresponsive to HO and has been paid now want us to fix the problem.

2) Happy homeowner is going to GC the project, read a few articles, has the Time Life Book series,  works out of town, does not supervise the work directly  calls for inspection and the job is not correct, HO is now the responsibly party does not understand the issue, several communications occur, contractor is unresponsive to HO and has been paid now want us to fix the problem.

3) Contractor gets permit as required, HO is not happy with the work , calls for inspection to explain all the precicved problems want us to have contractor make correct to HO satafaction. Contractor says they wer not ready for inspection, comming back xxx, will complete the work and call for inspections, who do we charge the reinspectin fee to?

HO can not do plumbing, electric, gas or sewage work in Mass.

Final answer, the responsible party, trades person, licensed individual or it a HO permit the HO gets to call for the inspection and fix the problem it there are any.


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## Jay Mac (Jul 4, 2021)

TheCommish said:


> We allow home owner permits in Mass. they are often a pain in the a$$.
> 
> 1) The contractor is lazy, not licensed,  not insured and or not registered (pick any or all), tells the home owner they can save a bunch of money by getting the permit or says the permit is in the truck. HO takes out the permit calls for inspection and the job is not correct, HO is now the responsibly party does not understand the issue, several communications occur, contractor is unresponsive to HO and has been paid now want us to fix the problem.
> 
> ...


In Mass. any home owner who pulls permit and hires anybody to work for them is required to provide workmans Comp. to anybody on his or her property. They are also exempt from coverage under Home Improvement Guarantee Fund.


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## ICE (Jul 5, 2021)

We allow residential owner builder permits for almost anything and commercial owner builder for building permits.  For residential there is a requirement that the owner has lived there for a year and will not offer the property for sale for a year…maybe two.  There is no way to enforce any of that.  There is also a state law that requires that anyone doing electrical work shall be a State Certified electrician…..and again, we do not enforce that.

We are supposed to verify that the contractors have workers comp insurance before a permit is issued.  Managers don’t want inspectors to get involved with that…..it creates work for managers if we write a correction for no insurance or a suspended/expired license.

It can be frustrating to deal with an owner builder and sometimes it is easy peasy. It always takes extra work for a building department but many contractors are just as clueless.  The worst of them treat us like they have matriculated in construction college…or have hired a superintendent.

But you wanted to know who can call for an inspection….our code say that the person doing the work is responsible for inspections.  And like a lot of other stuff, we don’t know who calls and we do not care.


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