What Happens When County Code Enforcement Doesn’t Protect You?

What Happens When County Code Enforcement Doesn’t Protect You?

Here’s a scary item that just hit the news recently even though the actual incident is a couple of years old.

So what happens when county Code Enforcement doesn’t do their job?
Short answer- It causes a lot of trouble and sets up a dangerous situation.

As any contractor does, we have our own issues with Code Enforcement. Each inspector does their own thing. Reliance on strict codes is always ‘open to interpretation’. If you complain, they make things worse on you. Etc, etc.

Not only that, but, for the most part, permits represent a revenue source for the municipalities. The more permits, reviews, and revisions they ask for, the more you end up having to pay for them. It’s in their best interests to make the process harder and more expensive for any homeowner or contractor to navigate.

There’s not much you or I can do about any of this, because it’s a retribution-based system. Imagine Soviet Russia  in the 1980’s. If you complain, the bad guys crack down on you and deny everything, unless you grease the right wheels or know someone. That’s pretty much how it is.

But this item is scary!

A local contractor was given permits for multiple projects even though they didn’t have a license? Even worse, they didn’t have a license because it had been denied for some reason?

You have to wonder if there was a simple mistake (four different times!) or who made some money on this deal.

I wanted to tell you about this because it’s one of the main reasons I always get the permits for our projects instead of making a customer do it. You don’t want to go through the process unless you have to.

I suppose another lesson is this- just because your contractor gets a permit doesn’t mean he has a license.

Dave, the guy who hates paperwork but will fill out permit applications for customers