Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections — Local services in Seattle

Horrible experience with this department. Scott the inspector is an absolute disgrace to anyone in his position he allowed for my landlords to keep a broken window in my apartment that which exposed me to harsh cold for over a year. Had I a person who was Caucasian or someone in his family this wouldn't have happened. Time and time again minorities are ignored and because of the living situation that I am in my case was swept under the rug. At some point Scott decided not to communicate with me anymore and decided to communicate with the property whom I opened the case agains, leaving me completely in the dark about his process, and forcing me to advocate for myself.

He Never gave any progress reports about the situation. I filed several complaints with the Seattle city because my property was in violation of several codes. They did not come out and do any assessments in fact I'm still living with black mold and mildew in my bathroom in which I've been exposed to sickness from this and they have done nothing about it. The city is supposed to be an individual investigation department instead they allowed the property who I'm filing against to lead the investigation by performing a dollar store test for test for mold which was inaccurate inaccurate and contaminated because it was handled by multiple different people In a contaminated uncontrolled environment. They never once sent the samples to a lab they never did any air samples bulls they never came in to do an inspection..

This is blatant discrimination and I do believe it's because I am a minority and had I been a person who was Caucasian or living in a suburbed area this would not happen. Scott never did monthly check INS he only communicated with the property investment manager who does not work on site and she works remotely at a headquarters, she is not here to see if maintenance is being completed she is not here to see if work orders are being fulfilled. The proproperty closed my work order multiple times, withought the items in the investigation being fulfilled. After including Scott in several emails to see if this case would be closed he told the property manager to tell me that he wants to be removed from the emails. If he is the initial investigator you would think he wants to be included in the emails but instead he does not maybe he doesn't...

Dealing with Seattle building department officer can be a hit or miss. Some can be nice and professional, while some just know how to humiliate others and being intentionally disrespectful, while some of them are just lackluster in their job.

Refuse to text/call before arriving is common. They suggest you to call in advance, but almost always inspector don’t pick up the call at the time they requested you to call. Even when the call go through, you can meet with ones refuse to coordinate or notify arrival time. Even if they’ll be late or need reschedule, it will just be no show or late straight forward.

Normally a whole day sitting onsite in car for an appointment waiting blindly is common. Otherwise you just miss them and receive permit reschedule fee invoice.

A disclaimer that not all officer had this issue, some of them are nice just some don’t, but seems they really need to have some org training or SOP to formalize their stance. SDCI being the authority meaning any officer have problem abusing the community can have a lot bigger negative impact than they think.

For the time being, I suggest home owner you just had to let the ones seems disagreeable and uncooperative pass and try if you found a more reasonable officer. You might have to pay couple additional fee, but no other way around if you want permitting...

My experience with filing a complaint and trying to get an inspector to to come out was poor. First it took 2 months and I had to call every 2 weeks to check status. When I finally received a message from an inspector I called back the next day and left a message on the number she gave me. I week passed by and no return call back so I left another message. Again no response. I also called the main number to try and reach her. Finally after quite a few attempts I finally got her directly and was told my case was closed due to the fact she said she tried to reach me and I didn't respond. I never received any other message since the 1st time. I told her I have called many time and left messages and to reopen the case. She said she would get back to me. By that time I got an inspector from another agency to come out and he said my apartment was unfit to live in and would send a letter to the landlord. My landlord failed to fix a repair that got worse for 8 months. I also wanted SDCI inspector to come out but the lady acted like I didn't need another inspector. I wanted one for legal reason but had enough proof. The fact that SDCI never came out and the inspector tried to blame me for not responding to her when it was the other way around was incompetence and showed lack of...