HBA Backs Bill to Support Homeowners Rights to Smooth Buying Process
When building their dream homes, families cannot afford significant delays or constant changes that hinder the construction process. Yet homeowners and home builders continually experience time-consuming and costly inconsistencies within many Planning and Development Departments (both cities and counties) throughout the state of Missouri.
In many cases, home buyers are left with delayed closing dates due to these departmental issues, costing them additional money. Even worse, some people have been forced to walk away from their dream homes due to ongoing problems with the permitting process.
These delays are not only costly for the homeowners, but also for the city, community and the home builder. Some common problems homeowners and their builders are experiencing include:
- Plan review delays when acquiring permits.
- Arbitrary enforcement of sections of the building code.
- Unqualified inspectors delaying the home inspection approval process.
- Inconsistent inspection requirements, thereby holding builders to disparate standards.
- Delayed Certificates of Occupancy.
In an effort to reduce the time and money spent on these types of issues, the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City (KCHBA) is backing the “Fairness to Homeowners Act” (HB 2451), which is being sponsored by Rep. Gary Cross (R-Lee’s Summit). The recommendations in the bill are founded on builders’ extensive experience building new single-family homes and their experiences interacting with local governments across the state. They are intended to help improve the plan review and inspection process for both builders and city staff. KCHBA believes that enacting this legislation will lead to:
- Reduced delays and fewer engineer consultations, which ultimately result in increased construction costs that are passed onto the homeowner.
- An expedited building process and increased availability of new homes from using engineers for plan reviews and as third-party inspectors.
- A more predictable building process and more accurate closing dates due to established permitting timelines.
- Increased builder confidence in the process will lead to more new homes being built in jurisdictions that are otherwise more difficult to work in.
- A smooth buying process for homeowners based on a timeline mandate for issuing Certificates of Occupancy.