Berkeley balcony tragedy spurs building regulation changes

Berkeley City Council in California has approved stricter rules on building regulations in the wake of last month’s balcony collapse that killed six Irish students and injured seven others.

At the same time, state legislators have rejected a new law that would have required construction firms to reveal evidence of previous negligence when seeking a building licence.

The new city regulations require a mandatory inspection of all existing balconies, decks, stairs, and other weather-exposed elements of all properties in Berkeley within six months, with a repeat inspection every three years.

The proposals initially called for a repeat inspection every five years, but it was unanimously agreed this was not frequent enough. At a council hearing on Friday last, the parents of one of the victims, Ashley Donohoe, 22, told city officials that there should be annual inspections of balconies in order to prevent such a tragedy ever occurring again.

An early report into the collapse on June 16 has confirmed the balcony had “severe dry rot”.

However, the full report into the horrific accident will not be completed for several months.

Council officials have estimated that there are some 6,000 buildings which will require immediate inspections and admitted that they do not have adequate resources to carry out those inspections.

Meanwhile, California legislators rejected a bill that would have increased oversight of contractors throughout the state.

The bill — known as SB465 — would have required contractors to disclose to their regulator, the Contractors State License Board, any past criminal convictions or lawsuits alleging defects, negligence or fraud.

Two Democratic senators, Jerry Hill and Loni Hancock, said they will continue to work on legislation to address one of the biggest concerns raised from the tragedy: how a state board was left in the dark about multimillion-dollar legal settlements involving the contractors they licence.

“They were as shocked as we all were,” Hill said.

Segue, the construction firm that installed the balcony, was named as a defendant in at least 20 civil complaints since 1997. Between 2012 to 2014 the firm agreed to pay almost $23m (€21m) to settle cases in Santa Clara County for claims related to water damage to balconies, stairs and walkways.

The legislation met fierce opposition from the construction industry, which warned that most settlements are made to avoid costly litigation.