Tennessee developers can now hire their own building safety inspectors

A new law in Tennessee allows developers to hire their own building inspectors to check for environmental, safety, and construction violations.

The law is intended to streamline the building process, particularly in rapidly growing communities. Privatizing inspections allows developers to bypass city codes departments and Tennessee’s Fire Marshal’s Office. The new law also allows builders to hire their own wetlands consultants to conduct reviews of permits if delays by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation exceed 30 days.

Critics charge that privatization has the potential to overlook key safety and building standards. Paid by the builder, the third-party inspector has incentive to ignore code violations, they say.

The new law requires city or state officials to review permits and inspections submitted by private contractors, but how those paper reviews will take place has not been determined. A conflict-of-interest provision prohibits anyone with a business or familial relationship with a contractor to perform the reviews.