KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Right now developers are gearing up because they will soon be able to hire a private company for their safety inspections. The new law goes into effect on October 1.
Dan Mitchell, Secretary and Treasurer for the Home Builder Association of Tennessee, said this is something that will benefit a lot of people.
It will also help many places in Tennessee where they're backed up and it can take them up to 20 days to get an inspection.
"It's definitely another tool in our tool belt to be able to help us expedite projects as we need to get them to move forward," Mitchell said. "Some of the municipalities don't have the number of inspectors available for them to be able to get inspections done within a timely manner."
Some of the things inspectors check are the structural integrity, the plumbing and the heating and air systems.
Steve Elliott, the director of development services at Knox County Engineering and Public Works, said there's a risk with this law they're not willing to take.
Knox County plans to have the final say in every building in the area.
"Obviously if you're paying someone for a service, I think it is advantageous to them to get an inspection that would be to their advantage," Elliott said. "We'll still require that our department does those gas inspections. We're also going to require that we do a final inspection to ensure all the life safety features such as smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors."
The law says anyone who will conduct those inspections will have to be certified by the state.
"So, ho hopefully those are qualified people that are, that have taken the test and understand the code requirements," Elliott said.
Mitchell said those inspectors could be an architect or an inspector that's been certified by the Department of Commerce.
All the inspectors that developers would need to have that certification and the approval from the state, Mitchell explained, just the same as a municipality inspector who's trained to be able to inspect for these types of projects and understand the building codes for these inspections.
At the end of the day -- time is money, especially for builders Mitchell said, and this law is meant to help.
"It's geared to saving the consumer money because in the end, all of our construction expenses are passed along to the consumer," Mitchell said.
