The issue of adoption is important. The building code that is adopted by a jurisdiction becomes part of the legal requirements of the adopting jurisdiction. This means it may be tested in a court of law, as it is a legally applied building code when adopted by the jurisdiction.

When the applicable building code references an installation standard or another code, such as NFPA 13, the referenced document also becomes part of the legal requirementsIn other words, if a large or fatal fire occurs, the application of the adopted code will be examined. If the building code contained specific requirements for a fire sprinkler system, and the fire sprinkler system wasn't properly installed, liability will be determined. Somebody may be found to be at fault.. So if a system is not installed in conformance with the requirements of NFPA 13, a violation may exist.

It is very important to determine the requirements of all of the applicable codes. There may also be other requirements applied by the authority having jurisdiction. These requirements may be locally adopted and are just as important as those outlined in a published code, such as the Life Safety Code.

NOTE: This is an unformatted excerpt from our online fire protection training library.