Tuscaloosa, AL Building Safety: Building Inspections (2026)

Sec. 6-7, rewritten by Ord. No. 9168, § 3, effective January 11, 2022, requires that all permitted construction sites be inspected physically according to the scope of the work performed. The request has to originate from the contractor, owner or agent, who must propose a date for the inspection rather than wait for the city to schedule one unprompted. The section carves out one exception: virtual inspections, submitted pictures, or an engineer's letter of inspection are allowed in place of an in-person visit, but only when the code official approves the substitution or determines it's necessary.

Authority to actually carry out and enforce inspections traces back to Sec. 6-3, which puts the chief building official in charge of examining permitted premises, making necessary inspections to confirm safe and lawful construction progress, and, where the official finds a violation of law or an unsafe condition, suspending code inspection services at the site, refusing a certificate of occupancy, or issuing a stop-work order until the problem is corrected. Sec. 6-16(c) ties a further consequence to inspections specifically for encroachment cases: a permittee who has previously encroached on a right-of-way or easement must keep a surveyor's staked plot plan on site until all foundation inspections are complete, for five years after the encroachment is remedied.