By Jon Styff

The Center Square

Tennessee contractors can now hire third-party inspectors instead of having local governments inspect the project.

The law, which goes into effect Oct. 1, requires fees charged by a local government for third-party plans, examination, inspection, review or permit packaging to be the same charged by the local government to perform the same service.

“As a former contractor, I know that a bureaucratic permitting process is bad for everybody except for the government,” Gov. Bill Lee said this week in Knoxville. “We want to flip that around and make the processes that we have in state government good for the customers who we are serving.”

Lee said that there is more construction in many areas of the state as the population grows and properly moving the process forward faster is key.

“With more building comes more plans reviews, more permitting, more inspections and with more reviews and permits and inspections, traditionally, that means more costs for those who are building these buildings because time is money and time that equates to money that equates to cost equates to dollars out of the back pockets of Tennesseans,” Lee said. “This house costs more if it takes longer to build.”