Dive Brief:
-
California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed state Senate Bill 465, which promises to provide more contractor oversight, transparency and accountability, according to The Los Angeles Times.
-
State lawmakers introduced the bill after a fatal balcony collapse in Berkeley, CA, last year revealed that the contractor had settled more than $26 million of previous construction defect claims.
- The bill requires that contractors self-report construction-related criminal convictions to the state licensing board, and the board itself is tasked with determining whether the collection of prior defect claim settlement data would aid in protecting the public. In addition, the bill mandates that the state's Building Standards Commission review balcony and outdoor structure building codes for potential revisions.
Dive Insight:
The apartment balcony collapse, which killed six and injured seven others during a birthday party in June 2015, has been the starting point for efforts to establish tighter contractor oversight and a comprehensive means of determining whether contractors have made any out-of-court settlements related to defective work.
The final bill is a more restrained version of the proposed legislation, Tom Holsman, CEO of the Associated General Contractors of California, told Construction Dive earlier this month. The first version of the bill, he said, was too broad in nature and was quite possibly counterproductive, as lawmakers were reacting to the immediate aftermath of the balcony collapse and to the families' outcries for action. Experts added that the helpfulness of information related to past claims and settlements is still to be determined because contractor participation in the mandated study is voluntary. In addition, attorney Mark Johnson of Snell & Wilmer, a business law firm serving the U.S. West region, told Construction Dive that contractors often settle defect claims, some of them specious, for the sake of convenience.
The section of the bill that requires a review of balcony building codes is expected to create the most change. As Florida discovered in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and, more recently, New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, new building codes often arise as a result of tragedy. In the Berkeley case, investigators determined that the wood under the balcony had succumbed to rot because the installers sealed the wood while it was wet.