If a City of San Antonio inspector showed up, looked at plumbing or gas work in your house, and left you with a violation or a stop-work order, you’ve met the Strike Team. Here is what they are, what they can actually make you do, and how a plumbing violation gets cleared. Goody’s Plumbing clears Strike Team plumbing and gas violations in San Antonio, and most of what makes it stressful is not knowing the process.
What is the Strike Team?
The Strike Team is an enforcement group inside the City of San Antonio’s Development Services Department, run by a building chief. Its job is life-safety enforcement under Chapter 10 of the city code, across four trades: electrical, plumbing, mechanical and building. It isn’t the same as a routine permit inspection. A permit inspector comes because you called for an inspection. The Strike Team comes because something got their attention.
Why did they come to my house?
It’s usually one of three things. A neighbor or a passerby reported construction with no permit posted. A permit was pulled for one thing and the work visibly grew into something else. Or a house is listed for sale and the work done to it doesn’t match the permit record. By the city’s own count in early 2023, the team had visited more than 8,600 locations and found violations at more than 6,600 of them.
What are they looking for?
The list is short and specific:
- Work done with no permit at all
- A building permit with no trade permits under it, when plumbing, gas, electrical or mechanical work was clearly done
- Work that went past what the permit covered
- A minor-repair permit used to cover an addition or an open-floor-plan remodel
- A door-and-window permit used to cover a full remodel
- Work by somebody whose license is expired, or who never had one
Plumbing is one of the four trades they check, and gas work falls under plumbing. A water heater swap, a gas line to a new range, a bathroom moved to a different wall, a drain re-run under the slab: every one of those needs a permit in San Antonio, and every one of those shows up on this list.
What can they actually make me do?
They can do three things, and they stack.
Fines. Citations through the administrative hearing officer start at $300 for a first offense, $500 for a second, and $1,000 for a third.
Opening up the work. This is the part most homeowners don’t expect. If the plumbing is already behind sheetrock, under tile, or in a slab, the inspector can’t see it, and the city’s position is that they have to. That means removing fixtures, cutting out drywall to expose the pipe and the framing, and in some cases cutting concrete to expose what is under the slab. Nothing gets closed back up until it has been inspected.
The contractor. If the work was done by an unlicensed person or under an expired license, the city can pull that contractor’s ability to do business in San Antonio, from a 30-day suspension up to cancellation. That doesn’t help you directly, but it’s often why the person who did the work can no longer be reached.
How does a plumbing violation get cleared?
The same way every time, and it isn’t complicated once you know the order:
- A licensed plumber pulls a permit for the existing work. In San Antonio that’s a completion permit, pulled under the plumber’s license, that describes what was done. This is the step you can’t do yourself, and it’s the step the Strike Team is waiting on.
- The work gets exposed enough to inspect. How much depends on what was done. A water heater is easy. A relocated drain under a slab isn’t.
- Anything that doesn’t meet code gets corrected. Sometimes that’s nothing. Sometimes it’s a vent that was never run, a gas line that was never sized, or a trap that was never installed. We find out when it’s open, not before.
- Gas gets pressure-tested. Water gets tested. On gas that’s a separate test permit and a separate inspection.
- We call the inspections and meet the inspector. When the last one passes, the violation is released and the work can be closed back up.
Every step of that goes through the city’s permit system, so there’s a record afterward that the work is legal. That record is what a buyer’s inspector, an insurance adjuster and the next Strike Team visit will look for.
What does it cost, and how long does it take?
It depends almost entirely on how much has to be opened up and what we find when it is. A water heater that was installed without a permit but installed correctly can be permitted, inspected and released in a week. A bathroom that was moved without a permit, with drains run wrong under the slab, is a real repair with a real price. We don’t quote a Strike Team job over the phone. We come out, look at what was done, tell you what has to happen, and put a number on it.
What if I’m buying or selling the house?
This is where it gets expensive to ignore. The Strike Team specifically looks at houses for sale, and a violation on the record will surface in the buyer’s inspection, in the title process, or in the insurance underwriting. If you’re selling, clear it before you list. If you’re buying and the seller’s remodel has no permit history, ask why before you close.
How do I keep this from happening again?
The city’s own advice to contractors is the same advice we’d give you as a homeowner: pull the permit, verify that it was actually pulled, make sure the scope on it describes all of the work, and call for the inspections. When someone quotes plumbing or gas work on your house, ask them who is pulling the permit. If the answer is nobody, you now know what that costs.
Talk to us
We’ve worked directly with the Strike Team’s building chief on a homeowner’s case, and we pull completion permits under our own license. Call 830-837-2810 and a person answers, or send us the details and we’ll come out and look. The rest of what we do in a house is on the high-end residential plumbing page.