ARIZONA DAILY STAR: Sat., Jan. 12, 2008
Pima county crackdown on construction codes
Inspectors may be coming to a renovated site near you
By Erica Meltzer
Pima County plans to crack down on home and business owners who completed construction projects without the proper inspections. The increased enforcement could generate as much as $1.7 million for the county's Development Services Department, which faces a significant deficit due to the downturn in the housing market.
But department officials say the increased enforcement also will improve public safety by ensuring that framing, plumbing and electrical work is done properly. Because the greatest risk to public safety is from large buildings and additions, they plan to check up only on building permits that cost more than $1,000.
"This is not just remodeling a bedroom or kitchen," said Yves Khawam, the county's chief building official. "This will be a whole house remodel or a commercial addition or a tenant improvement."
Representatives from the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association and the Arizona Builders' Alliance, which represent commercial builders, both said individual property owners who either didn't understand the process or wanted to cut corners are the ones most likely to be found in the new enforcement.
"For public health, safety and welfare, every home should have a final inspection before someone moves in, and we fully support (the county)," SAHBA President Ed Taczanowsky said. "For someone not to call final inspection and allow someone to occupy that home, you are so exposed to liability that I don't think our members would do that."
Taczanowsky said there were a few incidents at the height of the building boom in which homes were moving so fast that a builder accidentally allowed a home to be sold before inspection, but each incident was quickly corrected. He thought individual homeowners working on an addition would be more likely not to follow the process.
FULL STORY: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/220249