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A new rule will take effect Monday, Feb. 19, in the District of Columbia that local officials hope will stop a potentially dangerous practice involving tradesmen’s licenses but that has remodelers concerned about a potentially nerve-wracking impact on their business.
The change instituted by the District of Columbia’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) requires that, at the time an official inspection for the roughing-in of a project takes place, there must be present the holder of a master tradesperson permit or else a D.C.-licensed journeyman who represents the master and is employed by the master or the master’s employer—i.e., the general contractor. If either of those two people isn’t on the scene, the inspector is required to disapprove the work and require a re-inspection. This rule applies to inspections by designated third-party officials as well as to inspections by DCRA employees.
DCRA’s new rule was prompted by master tradesmen who illegally offer what sometimes are called “ghost permits” or “shadow licenses.”
In Washington, the city government requires people to have a master tradesman’s license in order to get a permit for projects in the capital city. In addition, the masters must either do that work themselves or oversee others as they labor. But that isn’t always happening.
Lynn Underwood, DCRA’s chief building official, told REMODELING today that it has found master tradespeople are taking money to designate someone to pull the permit and do the work without any supervision by that master. There are reports that masters can collect several hundred dollars with each project.
“Complaints led us to research hundreds of projects that had no master tradesman perform the work,” Underwood said. “Some master tradesmen have declined involvement, and we had to run through the proof … that somebody operated on their behalf without them knowing it and got the permit under their authority. And in other cases, some master tradesmen have sold the rights. … We’ve had times where the people doing the work don’t even know who the master tradesperson was.”
This problem isn’t just about code compliance, Underwood said. “There’s a workmanship issue. We’ve had many complaints that lead to this, plus financial harm to residents and owners.”
Well-established area remodelers have reached out to Underwood, seeking ways to support DCRA’s intent but not add extra challenges to doing remodeling work in a tightly packed, highly regulated city. It already can take hours out of the day to get all the right parties to a location for an inspection, they note, so requiring even more people to be at the jobsite will make that process even more harrowing.
Underwood says DCRA shares that concern. The department already has adjusted the original language of the rule, issued Jan. 19, by requiring the master or their representative to be only at the rough-in inspection, not all inspections. And DCRA plans to meet with remodelers on Tuesday, Feb. 20, to discuss the matter further.