Expired Building Permits Pose A Challenge For Town

 BREWSTER – It’s been said that no job is finished until the paperwork is done. That rings true for Building Commissioner Tom Delaney.

 Delaney told the select board last week that, over the years, Brewster has amassed between 1,000 and 2,000 open building permits. That means many property owners are likely occupying buildings that never received a final inspection from the building department, stemming from work that contractors did years or even decades ago. It’s up to those who first take out a building permit — generally a contractor — to make sure the final inspection is done, but that last step sometimes is forgotten or ignored.

 “There seems to be a history of having enough inspections to get by, to get paid by the homeowner, and then permits just weren’t closed out,” he said. While some contractors are cooperative, others are unresponsive. The result is a paperwork backlog that represents a drain of resources for the building department, he said.

Brewster is in the process of adjusting fees so that they more closely reflect the actual cost of the service being performed by the town. Currently, a building permit fee is based on 70 cents per square foot of construction, but a small addition or renovation that might cost $180,000 would only yield $100 in permit fees. Under the new proposal, there would be a minimum base fee of $75 per required inspection, or 70 cents per square foot, whichever is higher.

The idea of a fine on expired building permits generated the most discussion with the select board, since it has the potential to impact homeowners who aren’t even aware of the problem.

When a homeowner is alerted that their property has an open building permit, they’re often angry with the town, even though it’s not the town’s responsibility to close out permits, Delaney said. Often, open permits are discovered when a property is sold.

“People buy property and are surprised that an addition they’ve been living in was never fully inspected,” he said. Delaney proposed authorizing the department to issue fines of between $100 and $250, issued to the person who initially applied for the permit, generally a contractor. The fine would be issued on a case-by-case basis, only when the applicant refuses to complete a final inspection. 

“I don’t want to utilize this,” Delaney said, saying it would be better to prevent the problem by not allowing any new permits to be issued if an existing one remains open.

“I totally understand where you are coming from,” said board member Ned Chatelain, a real estate agent. Ultimately, building inspections are there to ensure public safety. “I worry, though, Tom, just candidly, that Brewster has for a long time had — prior to you being here — a reputation as a difficult town to do business,” he said. While the new fine would be often issued to the contractor, the property owner would likely need to pay to have an electrician or other contractor come to the site again. “And now the homeowner’s stuck holding the bag with an additional burden that they didn’t used to have,” Chatelain said. “Not to say that there may not be a safety issue, but this new rule I think is going to cause agita both with homeowners and contractors.”

Board member Pete Dahl said he cringes at the suggestion that Brewster’s inspection process is difficult, “because the reality is, their work makes us safe.” If there is a deficiency in a contractor’s work, inspectors catch it and ensure the problem is corrected. “These are really helpful for homeowners,” Dahl said.

Under this plan, the fine seldom goes to the homeowner — unless they were the ones to initially take out the permit — but the homeowner has always shouldered the responsibility of bringing deficient work up to standard. “That is unchanged, regardless of whether or not we institute this as a policy,” board member Amanda Bebrin said.

Most of the open permits predate the town’s use of OpenGov, the online platform that allows property owners to track the progress of open permits. It may be possible to use that platform to email property owners to alert them to potential problems, town officials said.

“Sometimes contractors will tell homeowners that they’re getting held up, and that may not necessarily be the case,” Town Manager Peter Lombardi said. “This cuts through that. They can see exactly how long it’s taking us to respond and what our response is.”

The board voted 4-0 to adopt the new fee schedule, including the new expired permit closeout fine, for new permits only, effective March 1