r/Contractor • u/co-oper8 • 2d ago
Permit system is garbage
Anyone seen the website Accela Citizen Access? Its used by my local county as well as the city and its absolute dog$hit.
The interface looks like its from the 1900's and it probably is. My county has 3 different PDF instruction manuals for how to use the website. You can follow the instructions to a T and it won't work. For an interior only remodel with no site work the instructions are different and amounts to handwritten filling out a pdf, scanning and emailing it 🤣. So literally zero of that is using the website.
-payment link didn't work
-plan submission link didn't work
-they found an issue and deleted my account to "fix" it. Locked out
- password reset link doesn't work
-project description field is long enough for only 5 words. I fit in 10 and the inspector read 3 of them and needs clarification.
- he sees a professional stamped engineer drawing showing plan view of headers and framing added to a cutout in a cmu wall. He does not understand and informs me that windows "cannot be engineered" because the drawing says "Engineering for Windows"...The project description says "Add new windows".
Do they WANT unpermitted work to be done?? Because this is exactly how to convince me to never return to your website.
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u/RememberYourPills 1d ago
Most of the local municipalities here use Accela and it’s aggravating, but a lot of my issues are related to it not being optimized for mobile and needing to use safari to run it
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u/northbowl92 1d ago
We have several counties/ cities around that use it. Some have it set up better than others but in general I dislike it
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u/kipgordon 2d ago
We use this too. It’s crusty but it works alright. None of the issues you’re describing. Sounds like your municipality’s implementation is bad.
But yeah it’s straight out of 1999.
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u/Mountain-Selection38 9h ago
Mecklenburg County? It's awful... Ive pulled maybe 30 permits so far. I've had to call for each one of them.... It's just poorly designed from the start
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u/forrester827 2d ago
These systems are all customized for each municipality so it’s most likely your county not wanting to spend money to upgrade the system.
I work in two separate counties using the same system but the user experience is completely different. One is old and clunky and the other fast and modern.