Law-Forums.org

[garret]

Is it a few bureaucrats sitting around an office who decide to make more laws just to justify there own jobs and give there lawyer buddies more work by providing more ways to sue people?

Or is it an actual electoral system where citizens can attempt to affect what is added to, and removed from the building codes.

I have been receiving calls from my insurance company telling me I have to put guard rails on my deck as it is 2 inches higher than the 24 inch building code height where rails are required. I was going to ignore them but now they say they will cancel my insurance if I don't comply. The deck has been fine for fifteen years that I have owned the property and 20 years before that.

[archy]

The code has been 24" for that since 1941. Can't you just spread 2 inches of flower bed mulch around to satisfy your persnickety insurance company?

[ned]

You mean you have an insurance company who actually sent someone out to your house to measure this? Congratulations, sort of. I don't think any of them have come to look at any of my houses since 1978.

I don't know for sure, but strongly suspect that some parts of the building code are driven by lobbyists from various industries and companies who feel that using their products is an improvement in safety. Or merely an improvement in their own bottom line. I can think of no logical reason why a bathroom door should be required to have a lock on it, which is what the building code says you have to have. Why would anyone but the occupants care if there is a lock on a bathroom door? And it has to be the kind that can be opened from outside anyway, so it doesn't provide genuine privacy.

I'm with the first poster. Toss down some mulch, or gravel, or paving stones, or anything that raises the ground a little.