Who Enforces It

In New Jersey, State-licensed, municipally employed code enforcement professionals, construction officials, subcode officials, and inspectors are responsible for the enforcement of the UCC. A construction official is a State-licensed code enforcement official who is responsible for administering the UCC within the jurisdiction of the enforcing agency. Construction officials oversee subcode officials and inspectors, but a construction official cannot overrule a subcode official on a technical issue in a field in which the construction official does not hold a license. A subcode official is a State licensed code enforcement official who implements the provisions of a specific technical subcode of the UCC and oversees the technical and administrative provisions of that subcode. Inspectors are State-licensed code enforcement officials who enforce the requirements of a specific technical subcode under the supervision of a subcode official.

Responsibilities

The primary responsibility of code enforcement professionals is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of New Jersey's citizens. To accomplish this, construction officials and subcode officials review construction permit applications to ensure that building plans and specifications conform to the UCC and inspectors perform field inspections for construction projects to ensure that the construction is in accordance with the UCC. In certain instances, the State has responsibility for code enforcement. For certain categories of buildings, the State performs the plan review while the local enforcing agency retains the responsibility for performing the field inspections. These include casinos and hospitals. For state-owned buildings and facilities the NJ Department of Community Affairs serves as the local code enforcement agency, the Department performs both plan review and inspections in these locations.