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City under fire for permitting process
By Shelia Watson
Staff Writer
Even as it deals with fallout from the Sofa Super Store fire, including the question of whether additions to that building had been properly permitted or inspected, the city of Charleston’s inspection office has become embroiled in another conflagration of sorts, this time with a repair contractor who disputes the city’s permitting process.
At the heart of the issue is what delineates a job requiring a permit and a job that can be done without a permit.
“In my opinion, the city of Charleston’s current policy for permits is all wrong,” said Van Herridge, vice president of Rapid Repairs. “They seem to be wanting us to pull a permit for every little thing, and all that does in the end is make the customer pay more for a job that shouldn’t cost a whole lot.”
Herridge pointed to an example.
“In one case, there was this lady downtown who wanted us to fix her toilet,” he said. “The permit cost $20, but when you include our time to go get it and process it, that means we’ll have to charge her $120 just for the permit. So we get there and it turns out to be a flapper in the toilet, which would ordinarily be a $75 charge, but we had to add $120 to the bill for the permit too. It’s just not right. To us it looks like the city is being unfair to its citizens.”
However, Tom Scholtens, who heads the city inspection department, denied that the city requires a permit for “every little thing,” as Herridge suggested.
“The city of Charleston has been requiring permits for years and years for a lot of things, and so far I’ve been trying to enforce that flatly, across the board, and trying to comply with that law,” he said. “But we’re trying to clarify what doesn’t need to be permitted, and we’re
trying to ensure that only licensed contractors do the work and that all construction work is permitted appropriately.”
Scholtens has met with Herridge and other contractors in the area several times over the past few weeks trying to find a solution. The meetings were called by Herridge after his company received a stop-work order from the city on two separate occasions when employees were doing repairs without permits.
In the first situation, Herridge said, the stop-work order was warranted and he immediately got a permit before finishing the job. On the other occasion, however, the employee was doing a minor repair to a windowsill, and the permit did not seem necessary.
“The problem is that you only get one time to get a stop-work order, and the second time you’re given a citation,” he said. “After two citations, you can get your license revoked by the Labor and Licensing Board in Columbia. So because of this situation, which to me is looking like a witch hunt, my license is in jeopardy. And that means my entire company is in jeopardy.”
Scholtens does not deny that the current permit code requirements present a dilemma for both his office and for contractors.
“I’m trying to isolate the requirements for permits and I’ll be reporting to the mayor and see if I can get direction on the requirements,” he said. “As we find those things in our system that need to be changed, we’ll have to take them before our elected officials. I cannot make the change myself.”
Philip Ford, executive director of the Homebuilders Association, was present at the most recent meeting.
“Yes, there have been some issues with the permits,” he said. “We’ve had some discussions ongoing with Tom trying to resolve what needs a permit and what doesn’t. It’s a really sticky situation.
“For example, the way the code reads now, you’d have to get a permit to paint your bedroom. I think Tom agrees that something like that is just silly. Why should you have to get a permit to paint your bedroom? That’s just an example, but it’s how tight the permitting process can be.”
The optimal solution would be for the city to focus on the more structural and life-safety issues of construction and repair, Ford said.
“Things like electrical, plumbing, the structural part of a building, that’s what we’d want the city to be sure to permit and inspect,” he said. “But having to inspect a paint color or replacing a window pane, I just don’t think the city has the resources to go around inspecting every single thing that the code says should be permitted. Protecting life and safety should be the focus.”
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