Private residential inspection - When to notify building official of unsafe structure

[Forensic74]

In single family residential construction, if you (PE) are retained by the homeowner to inspect the home and find an unsafe condition, you obviously notify the homeowner of the building. However, are you obligated to notify the building official?

 

[XR250]

I refuse to even look at decks at as-built decks at this point just to keep this issue from coming up. They seem to be the source of most safety issues I observe.
I also do not have time to monitor a homeowner to determine if it was fixed.

 

[dik]

XR250:
Then use Ron's approach... it's very seldom that I get involved with residential stuff, and, usually only for those I know. Even with Commercial and Industrial, I let the client know what the issues are and have almost never (1 or 2 in several hundred) had to go beyond this

Dik

 

[XR250]

Then use Ron's approach...

Ron's approach requires that I monitor the situation. I do not have the time or desire to do that.

 

[jayrod12]

Our local code of ethics says we only need to elevate the notification to the juristiction if our advice is ignored. You must give people a chance to repair their situation. If they willfully ignore you, then by all means take it further.

 

[lacajun]

In my case, I wrote a letter to the owner of an operating facility about known code violations and detailed them in the letter. The laws regarding my responsibilities to the public were also listed in the letter to the owners. They had a specified amount of time to respond with their actions or intended actions wherein a missed response date would require me to notify the city, state, and local OSHA offices. With several days to spare, they responded that all code violations had been corrected. In my opinion, that was all I needed to do as I have no authority to do anything more than take care of my responsibilities. Did I believe all code violations had been corrected? No. But that is their problem, as the owner/operator, not mine. I do not control their money or priorities.

In thinking about the definition of public, I've looked at a host of differing sources as well as the State of Louisiana's Board to arrive at, what is to me, a correct perspective. Public means everyone.

As far as residential, sellers often do not list known problems with properties and, indeed, will go to great lengths to hide them. So a termite infestation, in my first home, was costly, to me but not the original owners, as well as bentonite around window wells, in my current home.

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC