Opt-out option is a fraud

A recently distributed email, attributed to the Kootenai County GOP and the KCRCC is a masterpiece of misdirection and misinformation. The following discussion of the subject quotes from the e-mail in bold and discusses each point in regular text.

Did you know that if a county building inspector makes a mistake that costs you money you have no legal recourse!

This is the biggest misdirection of the entire subject. You cannot inspect in quality, it must be designed and built in. The inspector might miss something, but the culprit is the designer or the builder, not the inspector. If the design is flawed, sue the designer, if the construction is flawed, sue the builder, the inspector did not cost you money, the professional you hired did. If you chose to do the work yourself, then why should the taxpayers pay for your incompetence?

Did the Opt Out abolish building codes? No the most current building codes have been adopted.

This is another example of misdirection. The ordinance did not abolish building codes, it exempts owners from compliance with them. Isn’t it interesting what the choice of a single word can do to confuse a subject. following is a direct quote from the ordinance, Title 7, Chapter 1, Section 105.C.3:

7.1.105.C.3 Residential and accessory structures for which the owner has elected to opt out of the building permitting process shall be exempted from compliance with the International Building Code, International Residential Code, and the International Energy Conservation Code as adopted pursuant to this chapter, and from County enforcement of the current adopted versions of the International Mechanical Code, International Property Maintenance Code, International Existing Building Code, International Fire Code, International Fuel Gas Code, and other building codes that may be adopted in the future.

The Opt Out does not affect anyone living in a city in any way.

If a city annexes a property on which a substandard structure exists, the city must decide what to do about the structure. This might mean refusing to annex the property, potentially leading to a lack of growth onto new land, forcing growth to become vertical, and leading to an increase in apartments, or it could mean the condemnation of the structure.

The Opt Out cannot be used by contractors; it is only for property owners improving their own property. And: Can contractors build houses without county permits and inspections? No. Contractors cannot opt out. Only property owners can opt out.

Contractors do not speculatively build on land they don’t own; they contract with the property owner to do a job. Once a contractor owns the property, he or she becomes a developer and is free to opt out of the building codes. This leads to the next misdirection:

If I opt out can I hire someone to build a structure? Yes. As Property Owner when you opt out you are accepting responsibility for the building quality.

During the discussion of the change in the county ordinances, the question of a developer opting out of the building codes and selling a substandard house was raised. The answer from the commissioner supporting the option was: “let the buyer beware.” This is not acceptance of responsibility, but a deliberate opening for developers to avoid responsibility. As anyone who stops to think about this subject will realize, there are many problems which are not easily visible once the construction is complete. This opt-out option is not “freedom” but a license for developers to defraud home buyers. It has been reported that the two ex-commissioners who voted for the op-out option are already building, or are planning to build having opted-out. An interesting question is: Will they occupy the buildings which are exempted from compliance with building codes, or will they sell the residences, and, as stated at the hearing, “Let the buyer beware.”

This ordinance was promoted as an implementation of the philosophy of freedom, of property rights. The reality is that if this was true, the opt-out would apply to structures built for the use of the owner. As written, this ordinance has nothing to do with freedom and owner-occupied structures, it specifically applies to property owners, providing license for developers to cut corners, build substandard structures, and defraud homebuyers who cannot see the actual details of construction once a home is completed. It is a fraud and deserves to be eliminated as soon as possible. The freedom to build your own home is one thing, the license to defraud others is something else entirely.

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Dave Botting, B.Sc., Accounting; MBA; has nearly 40 years experience in Management Accounting, including fund accounting, and 23 years as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of international manufacturing companies.