Our city subs its code inspection to an out of town contractor. The city collects the money and then forwards it to the company. Our city receives no revenue from this. It has no one to enforce code compliance unless citizens report it or the property owner does, so the work is based on an honor system. Should someone get caught doing work without a permit, the city fire marshal will go out and tell that person to stop. The problem is if a legal contractor gives a bid that includes the price of the permit, it puts them out of the competition of the person that is not legal. The person that is not legal gets the job. As a contractor who does have the legal requirements to do the work, what are my legal options? My company has lost a significant number of jobs do to this lately.
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