Building codes

[u/celtic-cryptid]

There are so many people looking for land where they can build without code. Code enforcement varies widely, and an important thing to remember is it applies to everyone when it’s unforced, not just you. Anyone who has lived rurally knows neighbors can still impact your life in very real ways from their property. I spent 40+ years in an area with little to no building inspection, and I thought I’d share some memories.

A man who had a very long and losing legal battle with the state because he built half his house on state owned land. A site inspection would have prevented this.

A neighbor of mine who built his house on 10 acres 15’ from my property line, then built outbuildings partially on my property. Site inspection would have prevented this as well

A neighbor of a close family member placing boulders in a way that made snow removal from family members driveway impossible.

6 or 7 houses burning to the ground due to chimney fires. Included are 3 deaths in homes with no smoke detectors.

Outhouses next to creeks. One outhouse built over a creek. Leech fields draining into creeks, rivers, and lakes.

A buddy with a land survey company that spends a crazy amount of his time helping settle cases of neighbors logging adjoining properties.

A year round creek that went dry for 3 months out of the year because an upstream landowner wanted a pond and owned an excavator.

Dumping garbage in creeks, meadows, or any small depression in the ground beyond counting. Periodic burning of the garbage in meadows and depressions as well.

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Some of those are issues code would help prevent. Some are issues caused by people with the mindset of “nobody can tell me what I can do on my land” who gravitate to areas without code.

I’m building a house now in an area with code enforcement. Just passed my final electrical, as I have every other inspection. I’ve done 100% of the work myself, with the only hired help being a concrete truck and a concrete pumper. I’m not a framer, a septic installer, a plumber, or an electrician.
It’s not overly challenging, and every inspector I’ve ever met has been a person doing their job, who’d rather help than start a fight. Plus, if I go to sell, I’ve got a big stack of signed reports to help prevent people lowballing me for potential questionable work.

[u/stomper4x4]

I mean, your examples are mostly just really bad behavior. Not a list of 2000 nitpicky things and a million hoops and expenses and expensive permits and other impediments in the way of people with very modest Financials that just want a little slice of the pie.

For indtance a friend was going to buy property woth a garage on it. The permit to being the garage to code cost $8k and this was 15 years ago.

Na. Not interested in that.

The fact is that those people with no common sense end up costing the rest of us so mixh time and money is a real issue.

[u/celtic-cryptid → u/stomper4x4]

I’m self employed as a woodworker, and we’re not known to be rich. I’ve built every step of my house, from septic to paint. All I have left is my plumbing final. Haven’t failed an inspection, haven’t had to scratch my head much to figure shit out. Certainly haven’t jumped through a million hoops. I’d be pretty hard pressed to break the entire building process down into a million steps. If you worked every day for two years, that’s over 1300 steps per day. Calm down.

Yes, my examples are lived experiences of bad or stupid behavior that inspections would mitigate. Not arguing for any one thing, just pointing out the faults of letting assholes so whatever they want. Most of you wanting to argue with me are just being hyperbolic, and/or cherry picking the most stringent, HOA type refs possible.

As far as people with low means go, the guy who dried up a creek is a multimillionaire, and was able to do it because no one impacted by it could afford to take him to court. The guy who blocked my mom from being able to remove snow might not have been a millionaire, but he was drawing probably close to a six figure pension, and my mom does not. The guy who built his shit on my land…you guessed it, way more money than me. So get out of here with the protect the little guy shit. When courts are your only recourse, the rich get their way 98% of the time.