The comment has been said there are Standards here. These so called standards are more than 15 years old! There are no Codes or Regulations that are being enforced at all!

Some of the perspective houses being constructed are not being built with any care and attention to essential details that should be inspected long before they are permitted to continue. Very dangerous situation. Who are the inspectors? Why are there so many walls where the blocks are not even set properly? A lot of the outer walls have very little or no steel placed in the proper distance from each other to give good solid support.

In this day and age there is no excuse for any new home being built here to be in such horrific condition and being allowed to continue to be built. Nobody is inspecting anything and obviously people that know nothing of constructing a house properly are the ones constructing most of the new homes. What will happen when these places collapse, sink, or even worse cost someone in them to lose their life!

Hi New on the Blog:

You asked: “What will happen when these places collapse, sink, or even worse cost someone in them to lose their life!” Well, that has already happened, and what we did was to mourn for them, and then continue with our sub-standard building practises.

Regards,
Grenville

What came to my mind while writing the article is the Sunday school song:
The wise man built his house upon the rock:
The foolish man built his house upon the sand.”

Regards,
Grenville

Not saying that a soundly constructed house is an ugly house; just that this post brought that couplet to mind.

I choose to register my pickup truck as a commercial vehicle because it saves several hundred dollars a year in road tax. To register the truck this way I must have the truck inspected at The Pine, by a Government Inspector. To do this I must first go to The Pine to obtain an inspection date by filling out a lot of forms that mean nothing. Then, on the day of the inspection, usually a month later, I take the truck to The Pine for the inspection. If the truck passes the inspection I must return the next day to “get the results”. I already know the results, the truck passed, because if it had not passed the inspector tells me so at the time of inspection.

In the US, Canada, UK one takes one’s vehicle in and out all in one fell swoop, not to be confused with the one swell foop that constitutes government inspection here. Part of one productive day lost there compared to parts of three days lost here if the vehicle passes, more if it fails.

The query, however, is does the inspection mean anything. First, I can avoid the whole process by paying an acquaintence to have the vehicle inspected. In one case that service cost $250 because the vehicle really wouldn’t pass the inspection so there was need for a little “lubrication” for the inspector, not that the vehicle was unsafe, it merely wouldn’t pass the inspection because it had a few rust holes in the fenders, a real no-no at The Pine where a clean truck is more important than a safe truck.

The inspectors have never in all the years I have done business with them checked the alignment of headlights, checked the brakes beyond having to show that they worked, sort of, checked the horn, or wipers, actually asked me to turn on the headlights, and I could go on for quite some time detailing the omissions. They do look to make sure there are no tears in the upholstery, a real danger on the road. To give credit they do look at front-end bearings and steering components, but I can pay a “fee” to have them overlook almost anything.

So how can I trust a building inspector who will be underpaid, overworked, and subject to the same social, economic, and political forces that have corrupted vehicle inspection at The Pine????????? It isn’t having a code, it is expecting that the code will be enforced across the board, and enforced logically and not from a persepective of the whims of various individual inspectors who may soon learn how to shake down contractors. Given what has become the norm at the top levels of Government it is really hard to fault those at the bottom levels.

David-BU

Hi David:

Regards,
Grenville

You asked a good question. What recourse does the owner of a sub-standard constructed house have? This depends on the terms of the building contract. I would recommend that home owners make the structural requirements of the building code a part of the contract with their builder. Therefore, if there is a technical dispute, then the adjudicator can compare what was built with the contractual building standards.

Regards,
Grenville