Congress is scheduled to vote on FHA loan limits Friday. Senator Vitter, whom we supported in his re-election, has voted against raising FHA loan limits. He needs to hear from us as to the importance in Louisiana of the FHA loan limits returning to their levels before they were dropped. Thes limits for the state dropped from $8000 to $16000 shutting out many buyers in our state and further crippling our industry. Please email or call his office to urge him to support raising the FHA loan limits to help us offset increased costs from new building codes.

As a result of the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina, a major effort is underway with the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to raise homes above projected possible flood levels.

The question often arises, which contractors can legally raise, level, and shore homes?

The only contractors that can legally raise, level, and shore a home, where the cost of such jobs is $7,500 or more, are holders of state commercial licenses with the following classifications:
• Building Construction, and/or
• Rigging, House Moving, Wrecking and Dismantling, and/or
• Raising and Leveling of Residences and Buildings, and/or
• Foundations and Pile Driving, and/or
• Sidewalks, Retaining Walls, Patios, and Foundations, and/or
• Foundations for Buildings and Tanks, and/or
• Foundations for Buildings, Equipment or Machinery, and/or
• Foundations, Caissons, and Slurry Walls
Residential Building Contractors may bid on such jobs, but must hire a subcontractor holding one of the classifications above to do the work.

Home Improvement Registrants are excluded from either bidding or working on such lifting and elevation jobs except for renovations below $75,000 for work done after the raising, leveling, and shoring work has been completed on the home.

The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program has added insurance and bonding requirements for any contractor eligible for raising and elevating homes, including a general liability riggers insurance endorsement.
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Properly licensed and qualified contractors…It’s the Law!

For any questions or further information, please visit our website at www.lslbc.louisiana.gov or contact us by phone at 225-765-2301 Ext. 213 or send an email to newsletter@lslbc.louisiana.gov

As you know, NAHB has been working hard over the past three years to convince EPA not to issue a numeric Effluent Limitation Guideline (ELG) for the construction industry. If adopted, a numeric limit would require construction site operators to install costly Best Management Practices (BMPs), sample their stormwater discharges, and self report their sampling data to EPA or their state permitting authority – collectively adding thousands of dollars to the cost of the average single-family home.
After many months/years of trying to convince EPA that it did not have enough data to support ANY numeric limit for stormwater discharges, the agency has finally admitted such. We have been informed that EPA will soon withdraw its revised ELG rule from OMB and announce a new plan to collect data from the public prior to developing and proposing yet another new rule (something NAHB has been telling EPA it should do for years). Basically, after working with NAHB and our consultants, EPA realized that it could not rely on the ATS (advanced treatment system) data it had because it was flawed and its PTS (passive treatment system) data was suspect, leaving the agency with little data left on which to base a rule (something OMB and SBA also had warned EPA of in January). We are not certain of the timing of this announcement, but we were alerted this morning by both EPA and SBA of the new plan and expect to see an official announcement or Federal Register notice within the next couple of weeks.
NAHB was successful in this effort because of our integrated approach to challenging the rule (both legally and administratively), and our commitment and continued monitoring and participation with SBA, OMB, and EPA as they worked on reviewing and revising the draft rule. Effectively, it pushes EPA back to square one in developing the rule, and will likely mean that the Construction General Permit will be finalized in February without any numeric requirement. It also bolsters NAHB’s argument that a nationally-applicable numeric limit is neither defensible nor practicable and reiterates the need for and value of good defensible data. Finally, this means that NAHB will have to undertake yet another concerted effort to gather stormwater discharge data from the members. It is even more important now that EPA has admitted that it has very limited useful data, giving NAHB an opportunity to “stuff the ballot box” with data that we believe is defensible and accurate. We will be developing a strategy to do so over the next couple of weeks and will likely kick it off at Fall Board (depending on the timing of the publication of the EPA notice in the Federal Register). We will be counting on you to assist in the data collection effort.

Etayenesh (Ty) Asfaw
Environmental Policy Analyst
Advocacy
National Association of Home Builders

NAHB has a number of resources to help its members comply with the new lead paint rule. Remodelers and builders who do renovation or remodeling projects in homes built before 1978 must soon comply with new lead paint safety requirements set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Any company doing work in these homes must be certified, follow specific work practices and keep detailed records. At least one employee in these companies must be trained in these new requirements by April 2010.

http://www.nahb.org/page.aspx/category/sectionID=879