Moving a Business Through A Bureaucratic Bog

Buying a building and moving a business is insane, especially when dealing with bureaucracies that have no incentive to move the process along.

In Louisiana, like most other states, an administrative agency has to ensure a building is safe for occupancy. A builder of new construction must get the agency to inspect and approve before the buyer can receive a certificate of occupancy. In larger metropolitan cities of the State of Louisiana, the Fire Marshal does not do the inspections. A larger City's fire prevention bureau is tasked with the job.

In an effort to expedite the process, I applied for certificate of occupancy pending the final inspection from the City. For whatever reason, the City sent an inspector out the day before the builder scheduled an inspection so the City indicated that the occupancy certificate was denied.

As soon as possible, I called the State Fire Marshal's Office and learned that a final inspection report from City's fire prevention bureau was sent to STATE agency, but NOT to City's zoning agency. Don't get me started as to why the city's zoning department issues a certificate of occupancy when there is another department for building permits.

When we received notice of ?denial and non-compliance to our application for certificate of occupancy, I learned it was ?because someone (who knows who) went out there on a Thursday to do an inspection, but they could not get in because the building was locked. None of that makes sense because the builder set up the inspection for Friday. Clearly the inspection was done based on report to the State Fire Marshal showing final inspection and ready for issuing of certificate of occupancy. However, the last email notice we received said to contact the STATE FIRE MARSHAL’S OFFICE IN BATON ROUGE, which we did. All they told us was that the inspection was not approved for the reason noted.

Crazy mess, so I call the local zoning office where I made the original application for occupancy certificate. They told me that they were waiting on a report from City fire prevention bureau, which was waiting on a report from State Fire Marshal’s Office.

I called the local number for the State Fire Marshal’s Office and a truly helpful and kind woman sent me a copy of the final inspection from the City.

Obviously the ?report was with the Fire Marshal, but not with City fire prevention bureau because when I called the City's fire prevention bureau, I spoke to someone there who was completely unaware of anything. She could not find the address, the building, the builder nor the project number. Finally, she told me that she would have the assistant fire chief o contact me directly.

Coincidentally, this very assistant chief of the fire prevention bureau was sued by me in a mandamus proceeding earlier in the year because the City's fire department refused to comply with a Freedom of Information request after numerous letters, calls and emails advising of their non-compliance. I would not be surprised that the assistant fire chief has intentionally withheld notice to the zoning office that has to issue the certificate of occupancy.

Obviously, I cannot know that for sure, but I would think if someone were named personally in a lawsuit made them personally liable that he/she would remember who sued them. For that reason, I included notice to a privately contracted attorney for the City to make him aware of the cluster created by the City in the delay between two agencies.

Perhaps, I should give benefit of the doubt to the fire prevention bureau because the final inspection was done on a Friday and it may not have gotten in the “system” by Tuesday. However, my trust is eroded in a bureaucracy that would send someone to the site the day before the inspection was actually scheduled by the builder.

Okay, I get it. It takes a minute for an inspection report to work its way through the bureaucracy, ?but I find it very odd that the State Fire Marshal would have the report of final inspection while neither the City’s fire prevention office NOR the zoning department had copy of the final inspection in order to issue a certificate of occupancy.

To say that the City bureaucracies have been difficult is an understatement! I don’t know that I would ever recommend anyone buying or building in in this city because of the plethora of administrative guano that has to be shoveled through. I hate to say this, but the many tributaries of the swamp to meander through include, but are not limited to:

• Insurance updates,
• Certificates of Occupancy approval for the builder to sell and then certificate of occupancy to the buyer to close, move and occupy,
• Final inspections approval with Fire Prevention/Fire Marshal,
• Online applications with Zoning,
• Waiting on reports from the City Administrative Agency B to go to City Administrative Agency X, then back to applicant to get certificate of occupancy to the bank, title company, insurer, etc. just to close, move and occupy.

No one tells you what to expect. Unless you're an experienced builder or a savvy real estate developer, there is no assistance or general "checklist" to walk you through the overall process. Sure each focused industry/profession may have a checklist for building, closing, funding or moving, but be prepared that no one (until now) has created detailed checklist of the overall process.

I have learned so much from all of this that I could write a book of what not to do! I won't write and sell a book; however, I will be glad to share the detailed checklist for the next "Joe Schmoe, small business/profession" who is planning to build and/or move his business. Others have done it, but it seems that no one shares the process, nightmares and shortcuts with anyone else. Maybe I'm the first to offer the "secret checklist" or maybe by the time that others have been through the bog, the last thing they want to do is think about it any more so they burn the lists.

I am so grateful for an office manager who is focused and has helped to arrange the phones, internet, computers, moving and so many other tasks. Is it okay to name names for the positive? I think so! Thanks heaps to Sheila Lowery, Hope Hill and Kendrick Kruskie who have gone above and beyond all that is expected. Kudos to the rest of the team: Adrian, Ryan, Dylan, Tami, Jeanette and Christian who have been helpful (or at least not a hinderance). Thanks to Joan, Hilary, Tyler, Josh and Robin too.

If I left any names out forgive me but this final bureaucratic Bedlam has many more than just a little annoyed.

Add to all of this is the?United States Post Office rejected a change of address because new address does not show up as a valid address? What the heck? It’s absolutely insane.

Can you imagine the "Average Joe" having to maneuver through this quagmire??I will do my best to help others avoid it. Just email me at [email protected] and as soon as I am finished slogging through red-tape morass, I will send you a detailed checklist on how to get through it. Don't do it or don't do it alone!