California has signed AB 1738, and it changes how routine home inspections work. By July 1, 2027, every city and county must offer homeowners and contractors the option to request a remote inspection for a defined list of residential projects, at no greater cost and with no greater delay than an in-person visit.
For anyone who has waited half a day for a 15-minute inspection, that is welcome news. The bill’s author described routine inspections that take minutes but can eat up hours and force homeowners to take a day off work. The bill’s sponsors, Permit Power and SPUR, say contractors lose $600 to $1,000 per inspection in standby and administrative costs while they wait.
But a remote inspection is not a casual video call. The inspector can only approve what they can see, and they decide whether live video or recorded photos are good enough. Contractors and homeowners who arrive unprepared risk a failed inspection, a delay, and in the worst case the loss of the remote option altogether.
This guide explains what AB 1738 requires, which projects qualify, and how to prepare so your first remote inspection passes.
AB 1738 applies to work on single-family and two-family homes. According to the Assembly Local Government Committee analysis, eligible projects fall into two groups. Final details may differ slightly from the version analyzed, so confirm specifics with your local building department.
Remote option must be offered:
Remote option at the inspector’s discretion:
The first list is the one to watch. If your work is on it, you can ask for a remote inspection and the jurisdiction has to offer one. If your work is on the second list, the inspector decides case by case.
The inspection is conducted offsite. The homeowner or contractor uses videoconferencing or submits recorded photos and videos, and the local inspector decides which method applies. In a live session, someone at the jobsite follows the inspector’s directions and points the camera where asked. In a recorded session, you capture the required media and send it in for review.
A few rules shape the process:
The California Building Officials opposed the mandate, warning that a camera cannot always reveal what sits outside the frame, such as a loose gas fitting, undersized wiring or a compromised fire-rated assembly. That concern is the heart of the matter. Inspectors will be looking for proof that the work is complete and correct, and the burden of showing it clearly falls on the person holding the camera.
Contractors stand to gain the most from AB 1738, because standby time is where the money disappears. The gain only arrives if your crews can run a clean remote inspection.
Homeowners can request a remote inspection for qualifying projects, which means they need to be ready too, especially when a contractor is not on site at the moment of inspection.
AB 1738 gives cities and counties the option to run onsite audits that confirm the work matches what was shown remotely. A homeowner or contractor found to have willfully misrepresented the work can be temporarily banned from using remote inspections, and neighboring jurisdictions may agree to enforce each other’s bans. That makes one bad incident a regional problem for a contractor who works across city lines.
Local governments will also report on their programs to the state Department of Housing and Community Development, beginning with the report due April 1, 2028. Those reports must include the number of remote and in-person inspections, failure rates for each, and the number of audits conducted. Your results become part of the data that decides whether the program expands or gets scaled back.
In practice, a few habits are worth building now:
Remote inspection is not universal. The bill excludes foundation and framing inspections for small ADUs, and inspectors keep discretion over the second list of projects. An inspector can also end a remote inspection and require an in-person visit whenever compliance cannot be verified on camera. Structural work, hidden conditions and anything that requires testing equipment or precise measurement will often still need a visit.
If a remote inspection fails, the inspector may conduct later inspections for that permit remotely or in person. Plan for that possibility. Build some buffer into your schedule, fix the issue, and re-photograph the corrected work from the angles the inspector asked about. A clear, honest record of the fix helps rebuild confidence and keeps the remote option available for the rest of the project.
A remote inspection works best when the inspector can guide the camera in real time. Blitzz Remote Video Inspection is built for that. The inspector sends a link, and the person on site joins from a phone or tablet browser with no app download, which removes a common barrier for homeowners and crews who only need to connect once.
Once connected, the inspector can direct the session the way they would on a walkthrough:
For building departments, Blitzz also offers an Accela integration that launches a remote inspection directly from a permit record or inspection task and syncs the documentation back automatically. That matters for AB 1738, because every remote inspection needs to be scheduled, completed and recorded inside the permit workflow.
Remote inspections are only as strong as the evidence behind them. Under AB 1738, a contractor may need to show work that is about to be covered, prove what was installed, or respond to an audit weeks later. A photo with no verified date or location is just a picture.
BlitzzCam is the Blitzz tool for field photo documentation. Crews shoot photos the way they already do, and BlitzzCam handles the rest:
Used together, the two tools cover the full inspection cycle. BlitzzCam builds the record while the work is happening. Blitzz Remote Video Inspection lets the inspector see and guide the final check. When an inspector, homeowner or auditor asks what was installed and when, the answer is already on file.
AB 1738 gives California contractors and homeowners a faster, cheaper path through routine inspections, but only for those who can show their work clearly. The deadline for local programs is about nine months away, which is enough time to build good habits, test your equipment and learn how your local building department will run the process.
The core preparation is simple: know which projects qualify, set up a reliable camera and connection, document the work at every stage, and never misrepresent what you show. Teams that master those basics will spend less time waiting and more time working.
Tools built for guided video inspection can make that easier. Blitzz Inspect helps teams run remote video inspections and keep a clear record of what was reviewed. To see how remote inspection can fit your workflow, get in touch with the Blitzz team.