ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 5130
To the General Assembly:
Pursuant to Article V, Section I, Paragraph 14 of the New Jersey Constitution, I am returning Assembly Bill No. 5130 with my recommendations for reconsideration.
Assembly Bill No. 5130 would require an enforcing agency to give written notice, within 24 hours of a construction inspection request, to the property owner or person responsible for the work, stating the two-and-a-half hour period when the inspection will occur. The bill would allow the owner or person responsible for the work to file a complaint against the enforcing agency or code inspector with the Department of Community Affairs (“DCA”) if the enforcing agency fails to perform an inspection within the stated timeframe, fails to give timely notice that it cannot perform a requested or scheduled inspection, repeatedly fails to perform inspections on dates or during stated timeframes, repeatedly cancels an inspection causing notable disruption to the construction project, or is delinquent in discharging its duties under the Uniform Construction Code. The bill would require DCA to establish a complaint-filing system on its website and to take corrective action, such as imposing penalties, against an enforcing agency or inspector if it finds at least one violation.
I commend the bill’s sponsors for seeking to take measures aimed at providing homeowners, contractors, and others requesting construction inspections more predictability and certainty as to when inspections will take place, helping projects move forward without unnecessary disruption. This Administration has worked with our partners in the Legislature on several initiatives to streamline the inspection process, including, most recently, by enacting the law that this bill would amend, P.L.2022, c.139, which codified a three-day construction inspection deadline from the date of a requested inspection. As a result of those efforts and the work of DCA and local enforcing agencies, the construction permitting and inspection system has and will continue to become more efficient.
In this case, however, I am concerned that requiring enforcing agencies to designate a two-and-a-half hour timeframe during which an inspection must occur would place an unreasonable burden on local code inspectors. Inspection agents often encounter circumstances that cause inadvertent delays to their schedules, including the discovery of code violations that require extended onsite review, the failure of property owners or contractors to be present at the time the inspection is scheduled to occur, unexpected safety hazards requiring mitigation before leaving a site, and other emergent issues that may demand immediate attention. Any of those circumstances may cause an inspection to exceed the two-and-a-half hour window despite the inspector’s best efforts, further delaying other inspections scheduled to occur that same day. But under the bill, the inspector would face the threat of monetary penalties or other corrective action for each inspection that did not occur within that limited timeframe, even if real-world conditions outside of the inspector’s control caused the delay.
Accordingly, I am recommending amendments to Assembly Bill No. 5130 to strike an appropriate balance between the bill’s goal of providing more predictability in inspections and the realities inspectors face in the field. My proposed modifications would marginally expand the two-and-a-half hour window to four hours to more appropriately account for some of the aforementioned circumstances. In addition, I am recommending amendments to exempt municipalities in which DCA acts as the local enforcing agency—and projects on which DCA is the sole enforcing agency—from the bill’s timeframe requirement. DCA, which operates out of Statewide offices in limited locations, faces greater risk of unforeseen circumstances affecting its ability to meet designated inspection timeframes. Finally, because DCA already has a complaint-filing system for inspection violations available on its website, I am recommending modest revisions to reflect the current system DCA already has in place.
Therefore, I herewith return Assembly Bill No. 5130 and recommend that it be amended as follows:
Page 4, Section 1, Line 5: After “requested,” insert “or during the time window set pursuant to paragraph (5) of this subsection,”
Page 4, Section 1, Line 7: After “request” insert “that it is unable to perform the inspection within three business days,”
Page 4, Section 1, Line 8: Delete “two and a half hour” and insert “four-hour”
Page 4, Section 1, Line 9: After “subsection” insert “if it is unable to perform the inspection during that window”
Page 5, Section 1, Line 25: Delete “two and a half hour” and insert “four-hour”
Page 5, Section 1, Lines 26-28: Delete “enforcing agency and inspector shall be subject to a complaint, brought at the discretion of the”
Page 5, Section 1, Line 28: After “work” insert” may file”
Page 5, Section 1, Line 29: Delete “and filed”
Page 5, Section 1, Lines 29-30: Delete “if the enforcing agency:”
Page 5, Section 1, Lines 31-46: Delete in their entirety and insert “a complaint against a local”
Page 5, Section 1, Lines 47-48: Delete “and inspector subject to potential complaints described pursuant to” and insert “for violations of this”
Page 5, Section 1, Line 48: Delete “(5) of this subsection. The”
Page 6, Section 1, Lines 1-5: Delete in their entirety and insert “Municipalities in which the Department of Community Affairs acts as the local enforcing agency, and projects in which the Department is the sole enforcing agency, shall not be subject to the provisions of this paragraph.”
Page 6, Section 1, Line 9: Before “enforcing” insert “applicable”
Page 6, Section 1, Lines 9-10: Delete “two and a half hour” and insert “four-hour”
Respectfully,
[seal]
/s/ Philip D. Murphy
Governor
Attest:
/s/ Kate E. McDonnell
Chief Counsel to the Governor