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Quick question on Ordinance or Law coverage under a Homeowners policy: the policy says the carrier will respond for the increased costs incurred due to enforcement of any ordinance or law which requires or regulates…. In most cases a building inspector will not put into writing what is or isn't required yet they will obviously make several inspections. A reputable general contractor will rebuild to code either IBC or IRC which most states comply to. I guess the question is MUST the code be enforced by the building inspector or will the current code be sufficient? Does the building inspector have to put this into writing to satisfy the carrier?

  Kentucky Subscriber

The policy states that coverage is available when the ordinances or laws are enforced, but it doesn't say what enforcement entails. Merriam Webster Online defines enforce as to carry out effectively, i.e. enforce laws. By inspecting the property the building inspector is doing that, enforcing the laws. If the property wasn't inspected the property could not be up to code, and one would suppose that the inspector would fail the work and require it to be redone if it was not up to code. Also the fact that the contractor is forced to build to code or lose his license qualifies as enforcement.

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