New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has issued a conditional veto of legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Avi Schnall (D-Lakewood) that sought to impose strict timeframes on when local construction inspections must occur.

The bill, which passed the Senate and Assembly earlier this year, aims to require an enforcing agency to conduct an inspection of construction in a two and a half hour time window, and further notify the owner or agent in charge of the work of the time window within 24 hours of receiving the request.

Under the bill, property owners or contractors would also have been permitted to file complaints with the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) if an inspection did not occur within the stated timeframe, if an agency repeatedly failed to perform inspections as scheduled, or if inspection delays caused significant disruption to a project. The legislation further required DCA to create a complaint-filing system and take corrective action—including potential penalties—if it found violations by an enforcing agency or inspector.

In his conditional veto message, Murphy said he appreciates the sponsors’ goal of increasing predictability for homeowners, contractors, and others seeking inspections.

However, Murphy warned that the two and a half hour requirement places an “unreasonable burden” on local inspectors whose work is often affected by unpredictable field conditions.

Inspectors, he said, routinely encounter situations that extend the time needed at a job site, such as discovering code violations that require further review, finding that the property owner or contractor is not present at the scheduled time, addressing unexpected safety hazards, or responding to emergent issues.

“Any of those circumstances may cause an inspection to exceed the two-and-a-half-hour window despite the inspector’s best efforts,” the Governor wrote, adding that the bill would expose inspectors to penalties for delays that may be outside their control.

To balance the desire for improved scheduling clarity with the realities of inspection work, Murphy proposed several amendments. His conditional veto would:

• Expand the required inspection window from 2.5 hours to 4 hours, giving agencies more flexibility.
• Exempt municipalities where DCA acts as the local enforcing agency, as well as projects on which DCA is the sole enforcement authority, due to the logistical constraints of operating from limited statewide offices.
• Update the bill to reflect the existing DCA complaint-filing system, rather than requiring the creation of a new one.

Murphy said these changes would maintain the bill’s goal of increasing predictability while avoiding penalties for inspectors dealing with unavoidable, real-world delays.

Under current law, inspectors are only required to provide a date for their visit without specifying a time, leaving builders waiting indefinitely at a worksite. If an inspector arrives while the builder has stepped away, the inspection is canceled, forcing costly delays and inefficiencies.

The legislation now returns to the Legislature, which must decide whether to accept the Governor’s recommended amendments or take further action.