By Madla                                               S.B. No. 633
         76R4913 SMJ-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the application of a fire code and fire code
 1-3     inspections to certain buildings in unincorporated areas of a
 1-4     county.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 235.002(a), Local Government Code, is
 1-7     amended to read as follows:
 1-8           (a)  The fire code applies only to the following buildings
 1-9     [constructed] in an unincorporated area of the county:
1-10                 (1)  a commercial establishment, including an office
1-11     building or manufacturing facility;
1-12                 (2)  a building that produces income, including a
1-13     single-unit or multi-unit rental property; and
1-14                 (3) [(2)]  a public building.
1-15           SECTION 2.  Section 235.004, Local Government Code, is
1-16     amended to read as follows:
1-17           Sec. 235.004.  INSPECTIONS.  (a)  The county shall
1-18     periodically inspect a building subject to this chapter to
1-19     determine whether the building complies with the fire code.  The
1-20     commissioners court by order shall establish the interval between
1-21     initial and subsequent inspections.
1-22           (b)  The commissioners court may provide that a county
1-23     employee or an employee of another governmental entity under
1-24     intergovernmental contract may perform an [the] inspection.
 2-1           (c)  A building inspector may enter and perform an initial
 2-2     [the] inspection at a reasonable time at any stage of the
 2-3     building's construction and after completion of the building.
 2-4           (d)  On or before the date that construction of a building
 2-5     subject to this chapter is completed, the owner of the building
 2-6     shall request in writing that the county conduct an initial
 2-7     inspection of [inspect] the building for compliance with the fire
 2-8     code.
 2-9           (e)  The county shall begin the initial inspection of the
2-10     building within two days after the date of the receipt of the
2-11     written inspection request.  If an initial inspection is properly
2-12     requested and the county does not begin the inspection within the
2-13     time permitted by this subsection, the building that is the subject
2-14     of the request is considered approved for the purposes of this
2-15     chapter.
2-16           (f)  A building inspector may enter a building at a
2-17     reasonable time and perform a subsequent inspection following an
2-18     interval prescribed by an order issued under this section.
2-19           (g) [(f)]  The county shall issue a [final] certificate of
2-20     compliance to the owner of a building inspected under this section
2-21     if the inspector determines, after an inspection of the completed
2-22     building, that the building complies with the fire code.  The
2-23     certificate shall be valid until the next inspection conducted
2-24     under this section.
2-25           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-26           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-27     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.