VIOLATIONS OF BUILDING CODES ….WHAT DO THEY REALLY MEAN?

We generally are aquatinted with the city or county building departments when we need permits for a pool or modification to our home. Our reference point is generally that it is just an added expense we have to incur to do something to our private property or on our property that is regulated by the government. It is a nuisance and an expense which would like to do without.

Building codes came about in this country in the 1920’s. Before the enactment of building codes, private structures and buildings did not have to meet any standards or comply with any minimum standards for safety. These codes dealt with materials, exits and occupancy and were designed to “provide minimum standards to safeguard, life, limb, health, property and public welfare” by regulating the design, construction, quality of materials, use and occupancy, locations and maintenance of all buildings and structures therein. The codes did not assure the safest buildings or that the best options for safety were chosen. The codes do not reflect any industry custom or practice but reflect the very “minimum” governmental requirements to satisfy the local government agency.

The term “Grandfather-ed in” was a reference to a building that met building codes requirements in the year that it was built and thereafter, did not have to meet changes in the code made after the building otherwise met the standards in existence at the time construction of the building was completed.

Later International Building Codes were enacted which made the new purchases of old buildings responsible for detecting dangerous conditions in the building and ameliorating the conditions in substandard structures.

The International Building Code (IBC) is a model code that provides minimum requirements to safeguard the public health, safety and general welfare of the occupants of new and existing buildings and structures. Its purpose is to safeguard the general welfare of the public. These codes were first introduced in 1997. The Florida Building code is modeled after the International Building Code.

However, violation of a code does not mean that the violation itself makes the owner of the structure liable as a matter of law. Only proof that the owner of the building violated a governmental code, ordinance, law or regulation that was intended to protect a specific class of persons from this specific type of harm, will be negligence per se.

Florida law looks to the law, code, ordinance or regulation in effect on the date of the loss and whether the defendant acts or omissions were in violation of the law. The next analysis is whether the injured consumer was a member of the class the law was intending to protect. If the facts reveal that the violation of the law was a substantial contributing factor in the consumer’s injury, the the owner of the structure is liable as a matter of law.

Many slip and fall cases involve walkways, carpets, mats, runners, lighting disuses, headroom, stairways, wheel stops, barriers, gates, fences, and many other categories for which there are not specific codes. These issues require the consumer’s lawyer to hire expert witnesses to provide the jury with testimony and demonstrative evidence as to “industry standards” , if any, and what the safest options are to protect the public.

In addition, many consumers are injured going into or exiting a structure and the injury may have been caused by faulty design or failure of the owners to meet codes in existence at the time the building was built or when the new buyer acquired the building. Your lawyer will secure a certified copy of the ordinance or building code that was in existence on the date of the building’s completion or on the date of any renovations as evidence for the trial. Any violation of a building code may be used at trial and the jury instructed by the judge that the violation of a building code may be considered as evidence of negligence.