jar546
Forum Coordinator
I continue to see and hear of situations where inspectors and building officials have personal opinions that conflict with the codes as written and enforce their opinion vs the written code which conflicts with their opinion. Some will point to the statement code section below:
The biggest abuse of these personal opinions is hanging their hats on the "...authority to render interpretations..." and ignore the part where it says "...not have the effect of waiving requirements specifically provide for in this code." That makes a big difference.
We are suppose to be facilitators of the code and to a degree educators. Our work is not suppose to be a social visit and always be the good guy. I believe that many out there just don't like being perceived as the bad guy/girl and as a result of the lax enforcement, make it harder for everyone else by confusing contractors as to what is actually required. How many times did you hear the phrase similar to this? "I just did the same thing in another jurisdiction and it passed."
If you haven't noticed, I bring this up every few years to discuss. In addition to the happy go lucky, complacent enforcement officials we have the opposite which is just as bad. I am talking about the "Do as I say, I don't care what the code says." attitude where officials make contractors do things that are not required. This creates a lot of animosity in the industry from the RDPs to the contractors and homeowners.
Yes, we all make mistakes and none of us are perfect. We are going to miss things but that is not what I a talking about. I am really talking about intentional ignorance to the code by either coming up with excuses why you don't have to enforce the code or making up your own requirements that are not in the code.
Thoughts?
The biggest abuse of these personal opinions is hanging their hats on the "...authority to render interpretations..." and ignore the part where it says "...not have the effect of waiving requirements specifically provide for in this code." That makes a big difference.
We are suppose to be facilitators of the code and to a degree educators. Our work is not suppose to be a social visit and always be the good guy. I believe that many out there just don't like being perceived as the bad guy/girl and as a result of the lax enforcement, make it harder for everyone else by confusing contractors as to what is actually required. How many times did you hear the phrase similar to this? "I just did the same thing in another jurisdiction and it passed."
If you haven't noticed, I bring this up every few years to discuss. In addition to the happy go lucky, complacent enforcement officials we have the opposite which is just as bad. I am talking about the "Do as I say, I don't care what the code says." attitude where officials make contractors do things that are not required. This creates a lot of animosity in the industry from the RDPs to the contractors and homeowners.
Yes, we all make mistakes and none of us are perfect. We are going to miss things but that is not what I a talking about. I am really talking about intentional ignorance to the code by either coming up with excuses why you don't have to enforce the code or making up your own requirements that are not in the code.
Thoughts?