This article is from Tennessee Lookout
A new law initiated by Gov. Bill Lee will allow developers to hire their own inspectors to check for environmental, safety and building violations on construction sites — bypassing city codes departments and the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Lee, who made the measure a key policy priority this year, said it is intended to streamline the building process, particularly in rapidly growing Tennessee communities. “Time is money,” he said introducing the plan in his State of the State address earlier this year.
“Just take it from someone who spent 35 years in the construction industry,” said Lee. “A bureaucratic permitting process is bad for everybody but the government.”
Opponents of the law, including the statewide association of codes officials, say privatizing building inspections introduces risks.
For-hire inspectors paid by a builder seeking a favorable inspection have the potential to overlook key safety and building standards that apply to both single family homes and high rise office buildings.
In other words, private inspectors could have incentive to tell their boss what he or she wants to hear.
“The potential harm is they could approve construction that is not safe,” said Monty Kapavik, president of the Tennessee Building Officials Association and the codes enforcement director for Nolensville.
“Keep in mind the third party is paid directly by the builder,” he said. “ With local jurisdictions you don’t have that dynamic, because we’re not motivated by what they are paying us.”
Lee and state building associations that lobbied for the new law have cited lengthy wait-times for inspections.
But queries by the Tennessee Lookout to city codes departments across the state, and to the State Fire Marshal’s office, yielded a different picture.
Average wait times for an inspection vary statewide from the same day to six days for complex or large commercial projects, the Lookout found.
The new law requires city or state officials to review permits and inspections submitted by private contractors, but it’s not yet established how those paper reviews will take place or what they will entail.
A conflict of interest provision prohibits anyone with a business or familial relationship with a contractor to conduct the reviews, and it sets out basic qualifications for the third parties hired to conduct site inspections.
