Best Practices Construction Law : Construction Lawyer & Attorney : Matthew DeVries : Stites & Harbison Law Firm : Green Building & LEED Litigation

Short answer: Yes.

While most of the best practices that I talk about here involve commercial developments, today's post applies both to residential and commercial projects.  It's been two weeks since the historic flooding in Nashville and there is a lot of cleaning up and repair to be done.  On Friday, I received an alert from Davidson County's Department of Building Codes, which contained guidelines for permits related to the repair of flood damaged homes and buildings (pdf).  Here are a few important things to remember, whether the project involves commercial or residential:

• You need a building permit prior to making repairs on flood damages homes and buildings.  While you do not need a permit for clean-up or demolition, a permit is required prior to installation of any drywall, electrical, or HVAC systems.
• The property owner or tenant can pull the permit for repairs up to $25,000.  If the repair costs more than that, the permit must be obtained by a licensed contractor.
• Use extreme caution with restarting of any electrical systems or units.  Again, it is recommended that you have a licensed mechanical contractor inspect and test these systems before using them.

One final recommendation, as related to residential home repairs, is to make sure that your repair contractor is properly licensed through the Department of Commerce and Insurance.  The State has also put together a guide for finding and selecting a licensed contractors (pdf), which recommends the following: (1) get multiple bids from at least 3 contractors; (2) hire only a licensed contractors; (3) get a written contract; (4) get the contractor's proof of insurance; and (5) set up a payment plan and do not pay more than 1/3 deposit.

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Today, the U.S. Departement of Labor's OSHA announced that it is seeking to team up with local bulding inspectors in an effort to increase safety and avoid serious accidents and fatalities on construction sites.  The pilot program seeks to partner OSHA with building inspector teams in the following 11 cities:

• Austin, Texas
• Boise, Idaho
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Concord, New Hampshire
• Greenwood Village, Colorado
• Madison, Mississippi
• Atlanta Metropolitan area, Georgia
• Newark, New Jersey
• Oakland, California
• Washington, D.C.
• Wichita, Kansas

In a letter sent to the mayors of the selected cities, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis proposed that OSHA train local building inspectors about the four leading causes of death at construction sites (i.e., falls, electrocution, being crushed or caught between objects, or being struck by moving machinery or objects).  During  building inspections, the local teams would then report unsafe work conditions to OSHA, who would then perform a Federal safety inspection.

While the pilot program seeks a laudible goal of safety on construction sites, it will be interesting to see the interplay between the local and federal officials.  In addition, there may be overlap with state OSHA agencies if the program expands to other locations.  In the end, the true success of the program will be the avoidance of fatalities on construction sites.

Hat Tip to fellow construction litigator, co-defense counsel, and sometimes opposing counsel Marisa Combs for the OSHA news link.

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Today's post is by Craig Mangum, a fellow construction attorney with Smith Cashion & Orr.  Craig has an undergraduate degree from Boston College and a law degree from Florida State.  He also worked with the Construction Industry Licensing Board at the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

A bill to raise the building and permits fees currently charged by the City of Nashville is headed for its third and final reading on Tuesday, April 20, 2010.  According to Terry Cobb, the Department of Codes and Building Safety Director, the increase is necessary to achieve “full cost recovery for construction related services." (pdf) 

The Department of Codes commissioned a private company, Maximus, to perform a study of whether the fees charged by Nashville were appropriate and in line with other jurisdictions. The study showed that a 30% increase in fees is necessary to achieve “full cost recovery.”

Interestingly, the Department of Codes provided a comparison of fees charged by 14 peer communities. The comparison demonstrated that Nashville already has some of the highest fees for the selected cities and that the proposed fees would send Nashville to nearly the top of the list. (Fee Survey .pdf).  Indeed, some of the proposed fees are three and four times the amounts charged by cities such as Knoxville, Louisville, and Austin.

Maximus stated in its fee analysis that:

Admittedly, comparisons can help Metro leaders understand the market environment to help make market-based or political decisions, but such comparisons do not reveal any objective information or identify the true relationship of the fees to costs to help make cost-based decisions. (Code Analysis .pdf)

According to the third-party company, these figures can be misleading and that a more in-depth analysis would be necessary to truly compare the fees charged by the fourteen cities.

However, a closer look at the numbers by any layperson demonstrates that the already high fees in Nashville may reach even greater heights.  If the Department of Codes is going to commission another study, perhaps it would be more beneficial to see if building codes departments in other cities operate more efficiently.  In other words, Nashville may be able to reduce the costs and thereby forego any increase in fees. Perhaps these other peer cities just do it better.

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