Below is a position statement being put out by the Building Officials Association of Florida. These bills are very detrimental to our lively hoods and the publics safety. If you can I think it would behoove everyone to contact your local legislators to discourage the passing of theses bills.

Building Officials Association
of Florida
Position Statement on SB 744/ HB 1223 March 12, 2001
One of the most fundamental purposes of any form of government is to provide for the basic protection of the health,
safety and general welfare of its’ citizenry. Hence, in Florida, we have developed a very detailed and comprehensive
system of construction codes, regulations and enforcement procedures which are intended to work in concert in order
to safeguard the public’s protection in the built environment. Unfortunately, the current versions of SB 744/HB 1223
present a self serving alternative that makes a mockery of the building plan review and inspection services provided by
cities and counties. The proposed bills will weaken the very foundation of this fully integrated system that is designed
to afford Florida’s citizens the very best built and safest structures possible.
The bills’ implied intent is to expedite the plan review and inspection process for commercial buildings by allowing the
owner to hire his own private “commercial building inspector”, who must be a licensed architect or engineer (or a duly
authorized representative of same). The “commercial building inspector” is allowed to review all plans for code
compliance in all disciplines (building, plumbing, electrical, mechanical and gas), and certify compliance with the code
in order to obtain a building permit from any government jurisdiction in the State. The jurisdiction must issue the permit
within 10 business days or challenge the issuance through the local enforcement agency board of appeals. After
obtaining the permit, the “commercial building inspector” is authorized to perform all mandatory inspections required
by the code, and then upon completion of the building, he may submit a certificate of compliance along with all
inspection reports to the building department. The jurisdiction is then required to issue the certificate of occupancy
within 2 business days or again challenge the issuance through the local enforcement agency board of appeals. The
jurisdiction is given strict guidelines within which to respond to the initial permit request and certificate of occupancy
request, which includes the automatic issuance of a permit or certificate of occupancy if the jurisdiction fails to follow
“any of the procedures” described in the Bill.
The current versions of these bills contain a number of major concerns for maintaining the highest level of public health,
safety and general welfare. Some of the more offensive, but certainly not all, of the issues and concerns are listed below:
Threatens safe building practices – By allowing the building owner to hire his own plans examiner and
inspector, the integrity of the duly established neutral party plan review and building inspection process is
jeopardized severely,
Disparity in licensure – commercial building inspector or his representative should be licensed under F.S. 468
in order to assure competence and maintain discipline standards, however, the bill assigns this responsibility
to two other State Boards (Board of Architecture and Engineering) resulting in unnecessary duplication of
Board duties and a weakening of the inspector and plans examiner licensing requirements,
Lack of accountability – commercial building inspector should be accountable to the building official as
established in F.S. 553 (threshold bldg.) so as to maintain ethical standards and avoid conflict of interest,
Too permissive – owner should only be allowed to utilize this private sector optional procedure when the local
jurisdiction can’t provide services within reasonable time frames, as intended in F.S. 468,
Unreasonable time constraints and mandate on local government– the 10/2 day challenge period for permit
or C.O. issuance is unrealistic for many commercial projects,