Did you know that you do not have to use the city to complete inspections on your construction project? You don't even have to use them to approve the plans for your project. Per Florida Statute, a contractor is allowed to hire an registered engineer or architect to perform building inspections for them. The contractor must notify the fee owner (whoever is responsible for paying for the project) and submit special forms with their permit to the municipality, but by using a private provider for your inspections, you may be able to complete your project faster, than if using traditional inspection services. This may be especially valuable if you are working on a new construction project or a small, but time sensitive project like a bathroom remodel.
Let's go over how using a private provider may be beneficial to you and your project.
Tip #1 - You can call inspections as you need them.
As long as you follow the order of inspections dictated by the building department and your registered engineer you can call inspections as you need them. With the discretion of your engineer you can group inspections together as needed so that multiple inspections can be completed on one day. Many times, this is not possible when scheduling inspection through your local municipality. Many will want inspections done in a certain order and sometimes may not let you schedule one kind of inspection until a prerequisite one is completed.
Tip #2 - You may save some $$$ by using a Private provider
If you use a private provider for inspections you may be entitled to some cash back on the cost of your permit. Per Florida Statute, the fee associated with any discipline being inspected by the private provider must be refunded to the entity who pulled the permit from the city. So, if you contracted a private provider to complete the electrical inspections on a permit for you. You should part of the permit fees refunded to you by the city. They have to do it by law!
Tip #3 - You Don't Have to Worry About Notifying the City
Once you have your permit in hand and the city has approved the private provider you want to use, you can sit back and relax. Here's a little insight into the process we use at Specialty Engineering for our private provider clients:
Prepare private provider application at client's request so that it may be submitted to the building department.
This is inclusive of the proper affidavits, licenses and insurance certificates, and letters of notice to the building official.
Obtain a copy of permit and approval from client and take necessary paperwork to site.
Schedule inspections for the client*
*The client is responsible of notifying us of the inspections, but we are responsible of notifying the city of the inspection that we will be doing. We are obligated to notify the city by 2 PM the day before the inspection.
Create inspection reports and distribute them to our client and to the city.*
*We are responsible for submitting inspection reports to the city within 48 hours of the inspection being completed.
Review that all inspections have been completed and that the city has a record of all inspections recorded.
Complete necessary forms and create letters to issue Certificate of Completion.
Tip #4 - Faster Project Completion
T Specialty Engineering has helped one of our largest clients complete their inspections quicker and therefore complete their projects quicker by utilizing private provider inspections. One, of the most successful examples of this is for bathroom remodeling inspections. One of our clients, was frustrated because what should have been a two day project could stretch out over the course of a weeks sometimes because of the inspection process in most municipalities. However, by contracting Specialty Engineering as private provider, the actual work can be done in one day and the final inspections can be scheduled on the second day.
By using a private provider you may be able to save some money and get your project done faster. Call Specialty Engineering to find out how to use us for all of your inspection needs today.
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