Private building inspections permitted
Lee County, Cape Coral and Fort Myers adopt policies to implement Florida law
July 11, 2003
A Florida statute allowing property owners to hire licensed plan reviewers and building inspectors for their construction projects is now available in most of Lee County and its cities. Under the law, a building permit must be issued after 30 days if the submitted plan has been reviewed by a licensed provider. The law also permits the use of privately contracted, licensed building inspectors to perform inspections. The private providers must assume responsibility for their plan reviews and inspections and must maintain insurance coverage unlike government inspectors who are protected by qualified immunity, and have no personal or financial liability if a building they inspect is defective.
The law, drafted by a commission appointed by the Governor was intended to provide an alternative to property owner's who were unable to get local governments to perform plan reviews and inspections in accordance with law. Some jurisdictions had delays of six months or more for plan review and several days for inspections. The Governor formed an ad hoc commission to make recommendations directly to the legislature for alternative solutions to respond to these unmanageable delays. The Governor's commission was comprised of representatives from the construction, design, insurance industries as well as building officials. The legislation became effective last October.
The state of Florida has required licensing for building officials, plan reviewers and inspectors since 1993. The laws and applicable building codes have said that you must be employed by government to enforce building codes. Since private inspectors must meet or exceed the requirements for public inspectors and are both liable for their actions and insured, many developers agree that by obtaining private plan review and inspections they will be less likely to have defective construction, and will have less liability should litigation arise that is attributed to construction defects. The private option is available to any property owner on any project.
Building Officials have argued for years that private enforcement of building codes is like letting the fox watch the hen house. Others have effectively argued that government inspectors have a track record tarnished by Hurricane Andrew, are often over worked, and cannot be held financially accountable. Public and private inspectors in Florida must be licensed, and are all subject to disciplinary action by their licensing board should they be found guilty of allowing construction with code violations and a variety of other professional practice standards.
The law doesn't apply to zoning, engineering or other outside agency approvals, only to building codes, therefore it doesn't guarantee that local government will issue permits quickly. It does however give a property owner far greater control over the timing, frequency and quality of inspections his project can receive. The law leaves ultimate authority with the local building official to stop work should work be approved by a private provider that doesn't conform to the applicable codes. The building official is left to decide what level of involvement his agency may have in a project that the owner has elected to use this alternate method.
Click here to find out more about the Florida Building Commission
Details about the program
Alternative Plans Review and Inspections
Effective October 1, 2002, Florida Statute 553.73 allows the fee owner of a
proposed building to use a private provider to perform building code required
plan reviews and/or minimum mandatory building code required inspections for
compliance with the Florida Building Code and Local Amendments. The Statute
allows the private provider to perform these services on the building components
that are within the disciplines covered by that person’s licensure and is
further limited to the structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and
accessibility components of the building.
REQUIRED FORMS
The Statute requires notification of building departments, at the time of
application, for a permit that private providers will be used and the filing of
a sworn affidavit(s) by the private provider's plans reviewer(s) stating plans
comply with the Code.
The two attached forms were required to be established by the Florida Building
Commission for statewide uniformity. Other forms, required by law, are subject
to local discretion and must be obtained from the local authority having
jurisdiction. There are a number of requirements of law concerning permit
application requirements and notification/reporting to the permitting
jurisdiction as well as requirements for building department response.
See section 553.791, Florida Statutes, for requirements.
Owner Affidavit Form
Private Provider Affidavit Form