ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Permit Snafus...AHJs and Contractors Jump in

Virtually no free parking here but there are several parking garages and they do hove metered spots on the street. It is still a crap shoot how long you will be at the building department. "Good news" generally takes longer.
There are several different things you need and they are not all at the same place. There is a lot of walking involved.
"Rejection" is usually pretty fast. (nope you are missing "X", come back when this is complete.)

The production builders use a permit service and they have a separate desk because they will show up with a stack of applications. These are usually closer to being right the first time because the permit service knows what works and what doesn't.
You might still get it kicked back in plan review but it does get past the intake desk faster.

Most of the time these are mastered plans so they sail through. There are so many optional details that it is hard to figure out what they are really building from the master. The electrical plan is just a guideline. Point to point, I doubt there are many houses wired the same, even off the same master. Where my wife built, they gave the customer a lot of flexibility in placing outlets so you ended up having to put in extras just to meet 210.52. They also had a lot of options for additional outlets (garage fridge/freezer, additional attic lighting, additional outside outlets etc). Each trade would get a marked up master for each house that they actually built off of and outlet placement, switches, door swings, floor covering etc, was painted on the floor during the post framing customer walk through.

wow, i think i'm about $200 -$300 in fees so far....
~S~

~s~:
I bet ya don't have to pay for parking at your town hall!

The $$$ I put in my post was just numbers from the sky, an example for display purposes only.

Our friendly office staff call the 'responsible person' when the package is ready, and give them the cost. The comment regarding check or money order only, no cash, plastic, debit, etc., is also stated within that call. Do people show up with Benjamin and his friends? Sure do! We mention there is a bank & post office out on Route 27!

~s~:

No cash in the office = No possible problems!

There are some Building Depts here in NJ that are in the basements, & a few are in 'double wides' out in the lot.

Heck, I was in one Twp back in the haydays were the inspectors shared desks & worked split shifts. Now, with the housing bubble burst, that situation does not exist anymore.

I think you can pay for a permit here with cash but that will require a hike over to the county clerk cashier and a hike back with the receipt (about 4 blocks each way). You still have to do that with the Notice of Commencement (registering the job for potential liens) but that is in the same office as the clerk desk where the paper is filed but it would be a separate trip since you can't do the NOC without a permit number.

It is all of this that creates the business of permit runners.
They do it all a batch at a time.

Just, for a moment, consider the comments to this thread in light of what happens when you go to purchase anything else.

Even your local mini-mart faces economic pressure to let folks use their debit cards for small sales- even though the hidden transaction fees will eat up all the profit for the storekeeper. Nor are folks going to hunt long for a parking space, or tolerate much of a wait in line. For the merchant, it's all about the bottom line.

It's almost a law of the universe that pleasant experiences bring back customers, and happy customers make for a prosperous business.

NOW ... compare that to the practices of anyone that has a monopoly, and the use of their product is mandatory. Whether by law (traffic tickets) or practical reality (the electric or phone company). Long waits, unhappy customers, all manner of impediments for the customer. After all, it's not like your business can go elsewhere.

Let's look at that mini-mart again. Can you imagine the effect a 'no cash' or 'exact change' policy would have on his business? As much as the owner would LOVE to eliminate the burden of maintaining a cash drawer, the daily trip to the bank, and the worries about errors, thefts, and robberies .... the mini-mart still takes cash.

Snafus? Consider the differences in the way private concerns handle customer issues to the way government does. Or, such mundane things as business hours, business location, etc. It appears that the deck is stacked, from the start, against there being a happy relationship.

Libertarians would say "too big to fail" is a politically inspired concept that allows unsustainable enterprises to survive long after they should have been allowed to fail with the cost landing on the backs of our children.