Steve Payne
Dealing with building inspectors: Canadian Contractor wants your stories
Canadian ContractorOur upcoming story will help contractors to better handle their relationships with building inspectors of, ahem, "different levels of professionalism"
Our September issue of Canadian Contractor will include a story about building inspectors: the good, the bad and the ugly.
If you’ve had an interesting experience with a building inspector – positive or negative – we would like to talk to you. You can talk “on the record,” for attribution, or you can tell us your story anonymously.
Maybe you’ve had a building inspector help you to solve a problem on-site, provide good advice or expertise. Maybe you’ve had to deal with an egotistical jerk on a powertrip.
If you’ve like to be interviewed, please send a brief summary of your “encounter” to me at spayne@canadiancontractor.ca. Or post it here, for everyone to see.
Our goal is not to run the profession of building inspector into the ground, but to publish an article that will give tips on how builders and renovators can work more effectively with different types of building inspectors, with different backgrounds and personalities.
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I only had 1 positive response from a building inspector for structural issues. Most of them have an attitude and don’t remember that they are out there to help you out with issues. Normally I try to avoid them.
I have been in the renovation business for over 20 years. Not once have I had an issue with a building inspector. I am always upfront with them and do not try to hide anything from them. I suspect that for the most part that some of them may have a bad rep because some contractors will try to “pull the wool over there eyes”. Inspectors are paid to do there jobs so that projects are done correctly
I don’t even want the province of this one published because someone might know where it comes from but here goes!
My buddy was on his job site when an inspector came by, It was a residential renovation site so trade cards were not an issue but the guys were connecting a sink which is a controlled task only allowed by a licensed plumber. Ok, he got caught and you might say he got what was coming to him which is your right but here’s the bigger picture which is the most disgusting part.
My buddy, a 2nd generation contractor and father of 3 had not gotten a lot of work because of some difficult family times and faced with the choice of paying his license or having a rotting tooth removed that was killing him with intense pain he decided to wait a couple weeks on the license to get his tooth pulled and jaw cleaned up. Along the way some new clients became abusive in their demands for free upgrades. When he told them he couldn’t do anymore freebees or he’d end up paying them to work they called an inspector as a pretext to withhold payment. Heres the part you’ve been waiting for; the inspector showed up and slammed him with a $10,000 fine and a very pointed warning. He said that he didn’t care if the place burnt down because theres inssurance for that but he was there to make a good living and if his fine went to court he was going to hit him with $60,000 more for things he didn’t have proof of but wasn’t the least bit concerned about saying including threats against some of his older workers who woud have never recovered from the fines he could dish out! This was one of the most blatant disgusting abuses of power I have ever heard of and believe it or not I’m actually withholding certain pieces of information that would leave no doubt as to the event in question and certainly prompt a reprisal if ever the inspector became aware of this story getting out. It’s easy to say that justice prevails but really this is more typical than people might think, in some places it’s all about the money!
I had a inspector tell me i am the reason i keep getting “shitty neighbors” (his words) because i smoke inside my apt. I feel like i need to point out the outside of the building looks terrible, The halls smell like wet dog and the hallway walls have cracks, hand prints, graffiti and garbage bits all through it. But some how its because I am a smoker. I should also add everyone in the building smokes except me now, because I quit smoking inside for 2 weeks now. I’ve cleaned my walls to get the smoke smell out, now waiting for the same inspector to return