#137 – What is an AHJ?

By Bill Ford & Mary Raines

What is an AHJ?

One of the few NFPA "Official" Definitions independent in the NFPA Codes and Standards is the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) - an organization, role, or private responsible for enforcing the requirements of a code or standard, or for approving equipment materials, or an installation, or a procedure.
AHJ
This is a very broad definition which is further broken downwards in the Annex (NFPA A.iii.2.two). The Addendum provides examples of various AHJs (or those in charge who exercise their potency within a specific limit or territory). Examples are, but non limited to:
  • Local Fire Dept ensuring life rubber.
  • Insurance Visitor dealing with property they insure.
  • State and Federal organizations taking care of state or federal properties (due east.1000., the Army)
To help you go enlightened of who will be the AHJ(due south) for your building projection, observe the answers to the following.
  1. What Regulatory agency is responsible for doing the plan review and the approving of the installation?
    • If the project involves a Federal Facility often these facilities are exempt from local and State enforcement laws, ordinances and rules. Buildings may exist regulated by the General Services Administration, or the branch of the military for the type of facility where the piece of work is existence performed
      1. For example, if you were working on a federal projection at the federal level, the AHJ could be somebody from the government services administration.
    • If working on a state project, it may be a country regulatory edifice bureau.
      1. Some very rural states that practice not take dense population centers, might have a statewide building regulatory bureau.
      2. In nearly jurisdictions, it might be a municipal edifice department or local building regulatory bureau. In some unincorporated, rural areas, it might be a county wide building authority or edifice department.
    Bottom line, you demand to identify the agency that is going to be office of your installation and blessing procedure.
  2. Who is going to come do the terminal acceptance? For case, in a highly protected chance insurance project with a Factory Mutual insured facility, the insurer (client) might be part of the AHJ.
AHJThere may exist more than just one AHJ for a building project because there are different AHJs for unlike disciplines (e.g., electric, plumbing, burn, etc.). Because most projects are multifaceted, a building department, a state burn down align, and a local fire department (and maybe others), all acting equally AHJs, may exist involved in the same building project.

In summary, identifying the authority having jurisdiction can at first seem simple, but tin speedily go complex depending on the scope of the project.