Approved List of Private Inspection Companies

Department of Community Affairs
Division of Codes and Standards

Authorized Private Onsite Inspection and Plan Review Agencies

Effective 2/15/2023

In a major win for New Jersey’s commercial real estate industry, Governor Murphy signed a Bill (A573) on January 5, 2023 which makes several substantive changes to the Uniform Construction Code Act in an effort to increase speed and efficiency with respect to the construction permitting inspection process.  This new law which applies to both residential and commercial properties allows developers to hire private inspection agencies (authorized by the Department of Community Affairs) to perform property inspections if the local construction officials are unable to complete an inspection within three business days of the requested date.

The Department of Community Affairs has been designated to oversee compliance with the new rules and has been empowered to levy penalties on towns that fail to meet the new deadlines.   The new regulations seek to hold municipalities accountable for their inability to timely perform inspections by requiring the submission of annual compliance reports to the Department of Community Affairs so that the department can oversee each municipality’s ability to comply with the new time frames.  The intended consequence of the changes to the construction code are to alleviate the difficulty many municipalities experience, especially smaller towns with their limited resources and staff to accommodate inspection requests creating long costly delays.  The Bill also provides specific authorization for towns to enter into shared service agreements to consolidate work among multiple municipalities to enhance efficiency so as to better serve residents.

The law does not release the municipality of its oversight obligations as the third-party construction inspection firms are required to keep the municipality informed throughout the private inspection process as the ultimate approval and sign-off on a certificate of occupancy will come from the local construction official.  The municipality also has an obligation to reconcile with the property owner any fees which were paid previously for an inspection which was not performed by the municipality.

This new law comes as a welcome relief for many developers and contractors which have had to endure long costly delays in finishing construction projects as many towns in New Jersey do not have the budget, resources, or staff available to do inspections in a timely manner.  Costly delays to completing construction is one of the most prevalent and expensive costs incurred by contractors which in turn impacts the overall cost of construction.  The impact of this law should be swift and substantive in lowering costs and making New Jersey more competitive with other states which have streamlined the inspection process such as Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Please note that upon the adoption of the new rules by the Department of Community Affairs, the list of approved firms will expand.

For more information, contact:
Brian Peykar | 973.403.3121 | bpeykar@bracheichler.com