How does someone become a certified building official?
ICC certifications are essential for building inspectors, plans examiners, and building officials. Certifications demonstrate that the building official is properly trained in their field of expertise and can effectively apply the code to construction projects. Becoming a certified building official requires passing three International Code Council (ICC) certification exams. The entire process requires three basic steps:
1. Learn what the ICC requires for Certified Building Officials
The International Code Council requires examinees to pass three examinations in order to be granted the designation of a certified building official. The largest and most intensive of these three examinations by far, is the building codes and standards module. The 2018 certified building official legal module requires the applicant to be knowledgeable in an entire series of legal publications available from the International Code Council as well as some other outside publications cover employment laws in the United States. The required texts are as follows:
2017 Legal Aspects of Code Administration
2018 International Building Code
2018 International Fire Code
2018 International Property Maintenance Code
Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, 4th Edition
Building Department Administration 4th OR 5th Edition
From these code standards, an examinee must be able to answer questions from the following categories on the exam:
Legislative 11%
Code Adoptions and Amendments 6%
Prepare recommendations for code adoptions and amendments, for consideration by local, state, or national governing authorities.
Alternative Methods 5%
Establish a Board of Appeals to determine suitability of alternative materials, methods of construction, and code interpretations.
Code Enforcement 50%
Permits, Notices, and Orders 8%
Establish and administer procedures for processing and approval of permit applications, issuance of permits, notices, and orders.
Right of Entry 8%
Administer a policy for compulsory legal procedures required for entry to property for authorized purposes.
Hazard Abatement 6%
Establish and administer policies for condemnation and abatement of structures and hazardous conditions.
Tort Liability 7%
Administer a policy defining tort liability related to malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance, and use of threat, intimidation, and coercion.
Legal Due Process 6%
Administer a policy for implementing procedural and substantive due process of law for appeal of summary action and all other administrative orders to comply.
Court Prosecution 7%
Establish and administer a policy defining criteria and procedures for pursuit of civil and criminal prosecution for noncompliance with mandatory construction standards. Administer policies related to statute of limitation, preparation of evidence, and witness standards.
Warrants 8%
Acquire and document necessary permission or get a warrant to perform the duties of the code official.
Human Resources 28%
Anti-discrimination Policy 10%
Administer a policy which ensures that treatment of all employees complies with applicable civil rights, disability accommodation, and other anti-discrimination laws.
Employee Working Conditions 9%
Ensure that employee working conditions comply with applicable labor, health, and safety laws.
Employee Discipline and Grievances 9%
Administer policies and procedures for handling of employee discipline and for administrative due process of employee grievances.
Public Records 11%
Reports and Records 6%
Establish and administer procedures for generation and maintenance of inspection, plan review, fire investigation reports and records.
Code Enforcement Records 5%
Establish and administer policies for public access to departmental code enforcement records.
2. How to study for the Certified Building Official MG Module exam
Knowing how to tackle answering questions from all of the required sections is a daunting task. Practicing answering legal, code enforcement, and interdepartmental questions is essential for a building official or someone about to take an exam. In the field, a building official should be able to answer general questions about occupancy, nuisances, hazard abatement, and egress safety much like plans examiners and inspectors.
One of the major differences between a building official and inspectors or plans examiners is the authority to accept standards and alternative approved materials. Because of this, deep knowledge of the code is critical and thus the examination dives into a series of obscure and difficult questions. During an exam, test takers must be able to navigate the required texts fast enough to answer all of the questions within the allowed time of two hours. Building Code Masters has several practice exams for prospective building officials to test their skills and learn the most essential questions and scenarios they will be presented with as a building official. The practice exam for the certified building official mg legal module can be found through the provided links below:
3. How to take the Certified Building Official Legal Module exam
When taking a building code examination, it is typically essential to be able to navigate the code fast enough to find all of the answers in the text. The Legal Module is no exception to this rule and is quite possibly one of the most time constrained exams offered for building code administration. Most ICC examinations are open book and because of this, obscure and hard to memorize material will be included in all of the examinations i.e. lengthy court decisions and federal legislation for workers rights. The 2018 Certified Building Official MG Module exam requires applicants to be able to answer the following questions in the allocated time:
Number of questions: 75
Time limit: 2 hours
This means that examinees will have roughly one and a half minutes per question. This very small amount of time demands that a test taker have locations of certain material from the texts memorized. Having chapter locations memorized and pacing oneself will lead to passing the exam. Practice exams from Building Code Masters prepare test takers for the time crunch and memorization of the most important sections of the code. Whether the exam is focused on building, mechanical, electrical, or plumbing, Building Code Masters has all of the study materials available to help test takers learn how to become better educated building inspectors, plans examiners, and building officials.
For a complete list of practice exams and study materials, CLICK HERE.
