Building Permits: Are They Important or a Pain in the Butt
Why have we enabled our local government to have so much power over us? I want to be legal. I pay taxes. I want to fix my home up for my family, but I don’t want to waste money on pieces of paper that do nothing to help my family and only complicate my ability to do what I know how to do.
The building permit application in my town is $150. I want to replace a window. The window costs me $75. I could afford to do a couple of windows if I skip the permit, but then that makes me the bad guy.
Why have we enabled our local government to have so much power over us. I want to be legal. I pay taxes. I want to fix my home up for my family, but I don’t want to waste money on pieces of paper that do nothing to help my family and only complicate my ability to do what I know how to do.
What should be done? I know there are people who are incapable of performing construction on there own homes, and they could endanger themselves and their neighbors, however there are people who are capable.
Thus we have the building inspector. Sounds great right. Wrong! Building inspectors have become nuisances. They are not the guardians of safety for home-owner’s and their neighbors as they ought to be. Rather they are feared and avoided when possible, and when they catch us doing something wrong they have hefty penalties for us to pay. In some locations they have refused to inspect something that has been done without their knowledge. They make the family destroy something that was built perfectly and added joy to the families home and their life.
I suggest that we move to a sliding scale of payment for home-owner’s. I don’t like making things unfair, but I don’t like families suffering from an inability to act on their families domain due to enforced government oversight.
What I suggest is that after a disaster there should be no charge for work done by home-owner’s to restore their homes, and complimentary building inspections to ensure safety.
With today’s technology the I can’t inspect behind that wall excuse doesn’t fly, and during normal operations you should be able to pay with money or time. I know building departments have had to move to a for profit type model due to the low tax bases of many communities. However, I know there are down times when building inspectors are getting paid by the city to sit and do nothing. My plan would be that people who pay get first priority, but for people like me who just want to get around to it sometime, I could wait till it is convenient for them to help me, and my ability to work around their schedule could replace my need to pay, or at least give me a reasonable discount.
It’s a pipe dream I know, but I had to get it of my chest. I will work to make more money, so I can afford unnecessary pieces of paper. I will walk in and pay for my permits with a smile, because if you don’t smile they won’t issue you a permit anyways.
