It's under your cost to add railing for the 3 steps leading to the front verandar. However, your builder is responsible for the railing in the verandar area (if you floor plan has this)
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What is the building code for front stairs that require handrail in a residential area? 0 [1 X! f5 J4 P; N0 P+ p: b 3 n9 p' H5 A5 v$ CAnswer: - j8 n+ B# `8 E4 l) KThe exterior stairs on a residential home require a handrail if there are more than three risers. Three risers would be three steps total. If there are more than three risers one handrail is required.
Building code is only a minimum requirement and it does not restrict anyone to go beyond it if one chooses to. If it was written in the contract (it is included in the pricing), it should be done even it is not required by the code. Get your lawyer to look into it and see if anything can be worked out with the hold-back. This is a wake-up call to anyone who wanna buy(or build) new house, there is only few builder that is easy to deal with, they all appear to be nice and easy-to-go people before you sign up anything with them. Get someone really experienced to help if you prefer building your dream home to buying one (spec-home or preowned)