Federal Building Codes May Be Abolished

The Reagan Administration is preparing to abolish federal codes for housing construction, it was reported Sunday.

The Minimum Property Standards of the Federal Housing Administration are to be replaced by state and local codes as part of the Administration’s drive to reduce federal regulations, the New York Times reported.

The federal standards grew out of the National Housing Act of 1934 that made housing available to more people through government-guaranteed mortgages.

The standards call for sound, durable construction, privacy, comfortable and healthful living conditions, natural light and ventilation, sanitation, safe water and heating and low maintenance and operating costs.

Shoddy Work Predicted

Al Louis Ripskis, who retired Friday as a program analyst after 25 years with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said in a telephone interview that removal of federal standards will result in shoddy construction.

“The proposal will hurt this country very deeply some years down the line,” said Ripskis, who published a newsletter on his own time that was often critical of the department. He added that home builders will be “coming up with real shoddy housing.”

A recent newsletter took on the elimination of the federal standards, saying: “Under the new standards, bathtubs would no longer be mandatory; they could be replaced by showers.” Ripskis wrote that, without federal standards, houses could be equipped with papier-mache bathtubs or no bathtubs at all.

HUD Reducing Staff

James Nistler, a deputy assistant at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was quoted as saying that the proposed shift would be published in the Federal Register in September. The change reportedly will become effective at the end of the year unless Congress formally objects.

“The rug is being pulled from under the whole housing industry,” Ripskis said. “HUD also is reducing its staff and it will not be able to police standards in the various localities.

“The bottom line,” he added, “is basic standards are going to go downhill. The only people who are going to profit by this are the builders by cutting corners.”

But Lowell W. Springer, an architect who works in several Northwestern states, told the New York Times that federal standards had become so detailed and burdensome that they dragged down both the quality and attractiveness of housing.

Greater Variety Seen

Other authorities were quoted as saying that the elimination of federal standards could produce greater variety in both the quality and appearance of American housing.

But Ripskis disagreed with the argument that the marketplace will dictate quality, saying most homeowners will be able to see only surface workmanship.

“Unless you happen to be an engineer and you know the structure of housing a lot of these things we’re not going to see right away,” Ripskis said. “Defects caused by changes in temperature won’t become apparent to a potential homeowner until some years down the line.”