Blaine, MN Building Safety: Building Inspections (2026)

Section 18-22, Escrow Inspection Fee, dates to Ordinance No. 94-1541 from November 1994 and works alongside the general building permit provisions in §§ 18-19 through 18-21. Once the state building code is adopted locally under § 18-19 and a permit issues under § 18-21, the city's inspectors make site visits to check on progress or completion of nonstructural work tied to that permit, and each visit generates a fee. Where a developer or homeowner has posted a financial escrow, commonly required for landscaping, grading and other site-completion items under § 101-8, the city can reduce the amount returned by whatever inspection fees have gone unpaid rather than pursuing separate collection.

The inspection fee amount itself isn't fixed in the Code; it's set from time to time by city council action and published in the fee schedule the clerk's office maintains, the same mechanism used for building permit fees under § 18-21 and plumbing and electrical fees under §§ 18-33 and 18-59. Administration and enforcement of the underlying building code, including who conducts inspections, falls to the state-certified building official the city designates under § 18-20, and any person who violates the building code or this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor, with each day of continued violation a separate offense.

Because escrow inspection fees attach directly to a live building permit, unpaid fees can effectively delay a project's final sign-off and the release of its escrow funds until the account is settled.