City of Caldwell, Idaho - Department of Building Safety

City of Caldwell, Idaho

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Caldwell, ID

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Caldwell runs permitting through two systems and a roofer meets both. Applications, fees, inspection requests and permit status live in the City's own online portal, branded City of Caldwell Development Services, which the City describes as covering "building permits, mechanical, plumbing and electrical permits, business permits, and requests for code enforcement violations and complaints." Drawings and documents go somewhere else: the City states that "when submitting plans and documents with your application, you will use the ePlanReview (Project Dox) portal", and that the sign-up and log-in details for it "will be emailed to you once your permit is created and submitted through our ePermits portal." TIMING, in the City's own words: residential construction projects "typically take 7 to 10 business days"; "most all over the counter trade permits can be issued immediately"; and "online submittals typically take 24 hours or less to process." INSPECTIONS: "Inspections must be called in by 7:00 AM for same day inspections. All inspections called in after 7:00 AM will be scheduled for the following day", and "permits must be paid for and issued prior to scheduling of inspections can occur." The department has gone paperless - it states that "effective immediately, paper corrections and Certificates of Occupancy will no longer be printed at the jobsite", and that they are available from the Documents tab of the applicant's portal account. Building Department: 208-455-3024, [email protected], 205 S 6th Ave, Caldwell, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday to Friday.

STATE-MANDATED EDITION, ADOPTED AND DATED BY THE CITY. The City of Caldwell publishes its own adopted codes on its permitting portal, under the heading "2018 Codes": "The 2018 International Codes are adopted effective January 1, 2021. Codes adopted are, International Building Code, Residential Code, Fire Code, Energy Code (commercial and residential), Existing Building Code, Property Maintenance Code, Mechanical Code and Fuel Gas Code. Adopted codes include all State of Idaho amendments. Any submittal as of January 1, 2021 must include design under these codes." So a house in Caldwell is on the 2018 International Residential Code, and the State of Idaho's amendments to it come with it. That matches the state floor, which is set by the Idaho Building Code Board rather than by the city: IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03 adopts the "International Residential Code, 2018 Edition ... Parts I, II, III, and IX of the 2018 Edition for one (1)- and two (2)- family dwellings, with the following amendments", effective July 1, 2024. Idaho Code 39-4116(2) requires a local government that issues building permits and performs building code enforcement activities to adopt the Idaho residential code, parts I-III and IX, by ordinance, and in the same subsection bars a local jurisdiction from adopting provisions of a later International Residential Code edition "that have not been adopted by the Idaho building code board" - so a city cannot run ahead of the state edition. Parts IV through VIII of the model code, which cover energy, mechanical, fuel gas, plumbing and electrical work, are not part of the Idaho residential code at all (Idaho Code 39-4109(1)(b)); roofing sits in Part III, Chapter 9, and is included. Which edition governs a particular job is answered by statute rather than by practice: Idaho Code 39-4116(6) states that "Permits shall be governed by the laws in effect at the time the permit application is received."

NO SIZE, DOLLAR OR SCOPE THRESHOLD - A RE-ROOF NEEDS A PERMIT IN CALDWELL WHATEVER ITS SIZE. The City names the work directly. Its "Do you need a permit?" page states that "A permit is required for projects such as new construction, additions, remodels and repairs to electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems", and then, under the sub-heading "Small Projects", lists five items of work needing one, the second of which is "Re-Roofs" (the others being fences over six feet, window replacement, any attached accessory structure, and prefabricated swimming pools 24 inches or greater in depth). Re-Roofs appear there with no square-foot, dollar or scope qualifier of any kind. The same page carries a separate box headed "Some Permit Exemptions - In some cases a permit is not necessary", and its four items are: "1. Residential detached accessory buildings under 200 sq. ft. 2. Fences less than six feet in height. 3. Retaining walls not over four feet in height that do not support a surcharge. 4. Painting and similar finish work." No roofing item appears among them. Read that box as the City wrote it: the heading is "Some Permit Exemptions", so the City presents it as a selection rather than as the complete list of work exempt from permit, and the page tells anyone unsure to ask rather than to assume - "If for any reason you are unsure if your project will require a permit, please call the Department of Building Safety at 208-455-3024." There is no statewide Idaho exemption to fall back on either: the Idaho Building Code Board's only two amendments to the model code's list of work exempt from permit (Section R105.2) change a dimension in one existing item and add "11. Flag poles."

6.0% - the Idaho state rate, with no local add-on. Idaho Code 63-3619 imposes the state sales tax "at the rate of six percent (6%)". Idaho has only two kinds of local sales tax, and neither applies in Caldwell: a resort-city local-option tax, which Idaho Code 50-1044 confines to a resort city "with a population not in excess of ten thousand (10,000)" and which the Idaho State Tax Commission's own list of the cities that levy one does not include Caldwell in; and an auditorium-district tax, which the Tax Commission states "can charge a local sales tax only for short-term lodging (30 days or less)" and so never reaches roofing work. Idaho counties levy no sales tax at all, so being in Canyon County adds nothing. HOW A ROOF IS TAXED, which matters more than the rate: the Tax Commission's contractor guidance states that "Idaho sales tax law says contractors are the consumers (end users) of all the goods they use. As a result, they must pay sales tax on all purchases", and it names roofers among the contractors it covers. The roofer pays the 6% on materials at the supply house; the homeowner's invoice carries no sales tax line at all, on materials or on labour, because "a contractor doesn't charge sales tax to the customer" and the tax is absorbed into the bid. The Commission adds that "if sales tax is charged on the bill, the customer can refuse to pay it." A customer's own sales-tax exemption does not carry over to the contractor.