News

ARTICLE
Date ArticleType
4/12/2023 Member News

Washington County Inspection Time Frames


As many builders and remodelers have been experiencing since January, the wait times for simple inspections in Washington County have become unacceptable. According to the county’s data, inspection time frames for most jobs went from 1 to 2 days to an average of 10 days for basic electrical, plumbing and other inspections. This inadequacy puts builders, remodelers, and homeowners in a difficult position of halting work on build sites and delaying much needed housing opportunities during a time of high interest rates and extremely low vacancy rates.

We are actively working with the county’s Land Use and Transportation leadership to find ways that mitigate these delays. Staffing shortages are still the root cause of the delays—they are down roughly 5 positions, or about a quarter of a fully staffed team, three of which have recently been filled and will begin work soon, and the other two will start in the coming months.

In the meantime, we are urging our members working the county to leverage video calling, photos, and videos for inspections on their simple jobs, especially for re-inspections. While the county hasn’t yet outlined a formal policy for which types of inspections qualify for this type of submission, individual inspection staff do have the discretion to accept them in this form. We continue to urge the county to remain flexible in the interpretation of regulations that do not pertain to health and safety standards.

HBA realizes how much of an impact this has on builders and trades being able to deliver homes on time to their customers as well as the frustrations, scheduling issues, and costs involved with these delays. We are actively working to address and get relief as quickly as possible. If you are experiencing delays beyond what has been outlined here, please reach out to Preston Korst at prestonk@hbapdx.org.