“are the three of us alone in this problem or is this an issue that DOB/DLCP has internally created?”

“Dear PoPville,

I’m reaching out as a DC business owner that works in the construction industry to see if other businesses and/or DC residents have been told by DCRA, now known as DOB/DLCP, that records of their projects permitted inspections are not on file? Myself and one other business owner have recently been told that Pepco was never informed of a final inspection to get their side of a heavy-up or supply lines change because DCRA never sent them over the final inspection reports. In another case, another business owner I know was recently told that they had a permit open that had never been inspected even though the owner already had the C of O in hand, which meant the inspection had occurred. When my company followed up with DOB for our client, who is still waiting on Pepco, we were told the final inspection had never been done, therefore because it was beyond a year from the date the permit was pulled, we would need to pull a new permit and get a final inspection.

All of these jobs were done in the beginning of 2019 or middle/end of 2021, before or immediately after the pandemic, so we knew there were hold ups on Pepco’s side due to material shortages and manpower problems. Due to this we held off on following up with Pepco/DCRA (DOB) because we had been told on other jobs that this was just an issue from the pandemic. And when we did follow up, we got the response above. Now unfortunately for us, our client misplaced the piece of paper that shows the inspection has passed. For another one of my business owner friends, he had already pulled the new permit before finding the piece of paper, so when the inspector showed up for the second time he showed the inspector the already filled out inspection report that DCRA, aka DOB, said didn’t exist.

So my question to readers is, are the three of us alone in this problem or is this an issue that DOB/DLCP has internally created? Maybe it was due to the split of the offices? Or maybe it’s an inspector or multiple inspectors that weren’t doing their jobs and didn’t file the paperwork properly? Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.”