Logan County looks into setting
building standards
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[April 07, 2017]
LINCOLN
- On Wednesday, April 5, the Logan County Board's Planning and
Zoning Committee held their monthly meeting. One focus of discussion
was building standards.
This past summer, the committee began discussing the need to set up
some kind of building standards and trying to decide what would need
to be inspected. Various committee members had said structure,
electric, and plumbing should be part of a home inspection before
allowing occupancy.
Zoning Officer Will D'Andrea has also worked on drafting language to
add to the building permit section of the zoning ordinance.
Committee member Dave Blankenship said they should follow "best
practices" rather than "building codes." He has researched some of
the best practices to see what many follow.
Committee member Kevin Bateman said he wanted a licensed home
inspector to look at the home and approve it for occupancy.
At the last few meetings there were just brief discussions on
building standards.
At Thursday's meeting, Blankenship said the building standards issue
is at a "standstill right now. I don't know where we want to take it
from here."
Blankenship said he could take a look at more best practices.
Bateman asked, "What if we just backed up to the original
conversation thought of having to have a licensed home inspector and
just leave it at that.?"
Board Chairman Chuck Ruben said, "But you have got to have standards
for him to inspect to."
Bateman said, "If he is licensed, he should know what the standards
are."
Blankenship said, "ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) is
what he would go by, but then you run the issue if the contractor
has the right to know what standards to build to."
D'Andrea said, "If it is a new home, there is an existing statute
that says the contractor and homeowner need to agree on which
building code you are building to, but that is kind of a private
party transaction. The county does not get involved in asking if
they have got a contract or which building codes because we don't
issue a certificate of occupancy, so there is no enforcement or
checking."
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Blankenship said, "We could just straight out go with ASHI standards
because they have a pre-drywall inspection standard that they go by.
That is the easy way out because the standards are already written."
Ruben said, "What we want to do is keep it easy, but maybe we ought
to consider first off taking it out of the hand between the
contractor and homeowner as far as which standards they are going to
build to." He said, we would "pick the one we want them to build to
and then say, you are going to have to have this home inspection and
then have a [certificate of] occupancy."
D'Andrea said that would be fine, but "there's dozens of different
codes to choose from."
Bateman said, "If home inspectors use ASHI, why don't we just use
ASHI? I guess my whole thought on this process is taking the county
liability out of it." He said if no one is checking the standards
and something happens, there could be problems in a "sue happy
world."
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Ruben said, "Right now, we have no rules for it, so it is hard to
be sued for it because we have no standards. You can't be liable for something
you don't control. Once we start getting these rules, we open ourselves up to
that."
Bateman said, "Let's face it, if you make someone follow the
standards, the house is worth more money and we end up with more tax dollars."
Bateman said, "I'm just thinking if we go with the simplest thing, we won't get
so much pushback from the public."
Ruben asked Blankenship, who is a licensed home inspector, "when
you come and inspect, do you have find out which standards to inspect to?"
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Blankenship said, "No, we actually don't. For instance, they can go in and build
in accordance with national plumbing code, NFBA, and all that. What we do is, we
look at workmanship and safety issues that are relevant to their industry."
Blankenship said, "It is a general overall [inspection] of everybody, but it is
not heavy into any one, and that's the good thing, it's light."
Ruben said, "Maybe we just want to say, you must have a licensed home inspector
come through at a certain point in time during the build" and "when you have
submitted his report to us, then we issue a certificate of occupancy." He said
banks often make you get a home inspection anyway.
Bateman said, "I just wanted some kind of regulations and keep it as simple as
possible." He said, that way, for those who say, "you have no rules," we can now
say, "yes, we do," and for "the ones that say, don't restrict me, we can say we
made it as simple as possible."
Blankenship said inspectors look at areas like foundations, drainage, and
roofing, but it is often general standards. He said, "the ASHI standard is soft
enough, it covers enough for safety and workmanship, so you would be fine."
Ruben said it would be good to contact the state agency that licenses home
inspectors and "ask them if they would send somebody down to speak to us on this
issue and maybe they will have better ideas."
Blankenship said, "If you are interested, I did speak to one of my instructors
and he was willing to come talk to us."
Ruben asked Blankenship to contact the instructor about coming to next month's
meeting to provide more explanation of ASHI standards.
Committee members present were Chairman Scott Schaffenacker, Vice Chairman Emily
Davenport, Kevin Bateman, Dave Blankenship, Annette Welch, Board Chairman Chuck
Ruben and Zoning Officer Will D'Andrea.
[Angela Reiners]
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