Voluntary Third Party Plan Review

Effective January 1, 2014, the Town of Salem has adopted a Voluntary Third Party Plan Review Program to allow property owners, business owners, and developers the opportunity to expedite the receipt of permits from the Town of Salem Building Division.

Procedure

The Voluntary Third Party Plan Review Program works as follows:

1. The Applicant selects and hires a qualified Third Party Plan Reviewer ("Third Party") for their project. The Town of Salem has pre-qualified several Third Parties but will allow the Applicant to choose any Third Party that meets the qualification criteria and who is pre-approved by the Chief Building Official.
2. The Applicant submits the building plans directly to the Third Party for review, bypassing the Building Division. To save even more time, some Applicants may choose to involve their Third Party early in the project by submitting their plans periodically during the design phase rather than at design completion.
3. The building plans are thoroughly reviewed by the Third Party for compliance with the State of New Hampshire Building and Fire Codes, and other local approvals or regulations (i.e. zoning and planning). If the Third Party discovers any issues or has comments relative to code compliance, the appropriate corrections are made by the design team. Once the plans meet the appropriate code requirements, the Third Party certifies the plans for code compliance and recommends them for submission to the Building Division.
4. The building plans together with the Third Party's comments and recommendation for approval are submitted to the Building Division for final review, concurrence from other Town departments (if any is required), and permit issuance. Plans submitted under the Voluntary Third Party Plan Review Program will be given the highest priority by the Building Division.
5. If no errors or omissions are discovered in the Third Party review, the plans are approved and permits are issued upon payment of applicable fees. If errors or omissions are discovered, once the plans are corrected and compliant with all applicable codes a building permit will be issued.