Whenever an owner, operator, occupant, prospective purchaser, mortgagee or prospective occupant shall apply to the public officer for an inspection in order to ascertain if any section of this code has been violated, the public officer shall, upon payment of the fee hereinafter prescribed, cause an inspection to be made of the premises and issue an informational certificate or report of the inspection to the applicant, indicating therein any violations of this code. The applicant for such inspection shall state in writing his full name, residence and the reasons why the inspection is requested.
An owner, operator, occupant, lessee, prospective purchaser, prospective mortgagee or prospective occupant of any premises may request from the public officer a status report respecting such premises, stating whether there are any known violations of this code or any pending enforcement proceedings respecting any violation of this code and, upon payment of the fee hereinafter prescribed, the public officer shall provide such status report.
The inspection report referred to in § 317-71 and the status report referred to in § 317-72 shall be provided as a convenience to the public only and shall not constitute a limitation on full enforcement of this code, and no such report shall constitute a defense against any charge of violation of this code, whether or not the alleged violation existed at the time of issuance of the report and whether or not such violation was referred to in such report.
The fee for any inspection made under § 317-71 shall be $10 for any building containing not more than 10 dwelling units or rooming units, and $0.50 additional for each unit in excess of 10, and the fee for any status report under § 317-72 shall be $2.