This legislation was a priority out of the House Business and Professions Subcommittee. ABC of Florida had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion on the topic of Permit Reform during the pre-session committee weeks. ABC Member Holly Loeffler of Moss Construction testified to one of our most recent concerns – Building Departments requiring copies of private contracts between the General Contractor and the Owner and their subcontractors as a requirement of securing a permit. Private contracts contain competitive and proprietary information that should not be subject to public records requests. House Bill 1059 includes in it a prohibition on this behavior.
What else does it do? It establishes a series of required best practices from posting all required types of permits and to allowing online submissions with attachments and online payments. Additionally, this legislation would require fee reductions or reimbursement. This is a great piece of legislation and ABC appreciates the opportunity to participate on the panel and to have our request included in the legislation.