Here to Serve You

The Building Department monitors new construction, existing buildings and properties to ensure compliance with the State Building codes and local ordinances.  Our staff of professional inspectors perform plan reviews and daily inspections of new construction so residents and businesses can rest assured their homes and buildings are constructed in a safe and sound manner.

Every inspector on staff for the City of Rochester Hills is registered with the state in at least two of the following categories - building, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, plan review, and building official.  Registration with the state is mandatory for any city employee who performs inspections.  In order to qualify for registration, inspectors must have a minimum of four years of verifiable construction experience, a journeyman's card, or be licensed by the State as an architect or engineer.

To stay registered, the city inspectors each complete 47-150 hours of professional development (continuing education) within a three-year registration cycle.  Areas of training include technical knowledge (code requirements and code changes), communication skills, specialty information (new products), administration, and plan review.  This knowledge and training is essential for the city's inspectors as they perform their daily tasks to ensure that the new buildings are safe for the residents of Rochester Hills.  In 2006, the Building Department staff issued over 6,000 permits, performed over 4,200 plan reviews and 14,360 inspections.

The city's three Ordinance Inspectors perform daily patrols of the city's existing building and properties to verify conformance with standards set forth in our local ordinances.  They patrol the city for dangerous buildings, debris, junk cars, weeds, commercial vehicles, illegal signs, and other ordinance violations in an effort to help maintain property values and the high quality of life that Rochester Hills residents expect and deserve.  In 2006, the ordinance staff picked up over 3,900 illegal signs and responded to over 1,450 complaints.

Our technical personnel are supported by a well trained and experienced clerical staff that assist customers in an effort to make their call or visit to the Building Department a pleasurable one.  In 2006, in addition to issuing permits and scheduling the inspections noted above, the clerical staff responded to over 45,500 phone calls and assisted the Building Department staff with the policies and procedures necessary to keep our busy department functioning.

The Building Department staff has developed a mission plan designed to continually monitor our processes and procedures to make certain the codes and ordinances are administered in the most efficient and effective manor.  With the construction season just around the corner, we are primed and ready to serve you.

On the Building Department web page are a couple of informative areas that may be useful to you.  One is the "Building Department Inquiry Directory", which contains a complete list of Building Department employees with their job duties and direct phone numbers.  Click here to go there now.  Also, if you are thinking of building a new house, addition, garage/shed, wood deck, or a swimming pool, there are construction manuals available that will give you examples and help you through the construction process from design to completion.  Click here to view them now.

As we work to improve our communications, you will be seeing and hearing more about the Building Department.  We, in turn, hope to see and hear more from you.

Give us a call at 248-656-4615 if you have any questions.  Let us know how we are doing after all, we are "here to serve you".