Remote Video Building Inspection Service
2020 NACo Achievement Award Winner
Brunswick County, N.C., NC
Best In Category
About the Program
Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)
Year: 2020
Brunswick County is geographically the sixth largest county in North Carolina and is ranked the fourth fastest growing county in the nation by the U.S. Census Bureau among counties with 20,000 or more residents from 2017 to 2018. This combination poses a unique challenge to building inspection performance due to the sheer size of the county coupled with widespread growth in both residential and commercial building construction. North Carolina requires counties to perform building inspections within two business days from the date the inspection is requested. Counties can potentially be financially penalized if they fail to perform as mandated. This places a large county that is experiencing rapid growth in a challenging position due to the time and expense associated with hiring and maintaining adequate staff to meet both current and future demand.In an effort to improve effectiveness and public service, the Code Administration Department that manages building inspections determined that there was an opportunity to leverage existing technology to help alleviate these challenges. Remote Video Inspection (RVI) provides a way to effectively help both the building inspection staff and the public. The added benefits are that it is done with minimal adjustments to the online inspection scheduling system and doesn’t require the purchase of additional software or hardware.The Director of Code Administration approved the launch of RVI to the public in January 2019 after performing multiple test inspections and determining that this method was effective for specific types of building inspections. Brunswick County is the first county in North Carolina to implement RVI for building inspections. The Director of Code Administration is working with the North Carolina Department of Insurance to keep them informed about the program and its progress as the RVI pilot program for the State of North Carolina.