buildingellicott
Member
I condemned a slumlord's only rental (a duplex) in my jurisdiction (nearby, he haunts others more) and his attorney and he, through court, gave me permissible perpetual inspection access. What a mess!
Romex stapled to 5-foot wet-floor basement ceilings, mostly all 14-gage into 20-amp breakers in an old corroded panel, but with a newer CH panel for one of the floors. No fastening of J-boxes or Receptacle Boxes and forget about covers on such. No GFCI anywhere, and the list gets long -- can almost circle every item in the residential sections of the NEC. Exposed wiring stapled to walls throughout the builiding -- through walls, outside then back in and so forth.
Then, I learned that just a few years ago he had new meter socket panels, new meters, new feed and weatherhead, etc., accepted and connected to the old service panels with all the terrible conditions listed. Guy claims to be an electrical expert too and blames most stuff on bad tenants (sure, most of them would pull out good wiring to make it bad and replace 12-gage proper wiring with improper 14-gage physical-damage prone right to the old, old, old 20 amp breakers, right? -- and then cover with 15 years of something like cobweb-in-a-can.
Any comments that would be more productive than the boot kick reflex I am holding back. Convince me that no sympathy is deserved, that I should rightly order the whole place correctly re-wired and keep it condemned until that and all the other stuff are fixed. Just the NEC section on "workmanlike manner" is violated beyond belief. Convince me to tell the utility to not hook him back up even if he complains about me to the Public Service Commission (let them Order me to let him have unsafe wiring!). Then convince me I get to do the boot kick too.
I would post pictures, but #1 I don't know if I can here, and #2 you wouldn't be able to digest lunch for a few days if you saw them.
Thanks for letting me vent. If I slandered the guy whose but my shoe is aimed at, I doubt if he will recognize who I am talking about (identification is required for defamation) and do you think it likely a contractor (he has a business as such!) landlord like that would even be reading a thoughtful and caring forum like this?
I still have to count to 10 about 100 more times.
Best regards toi all.
Romex stapled to 5-foot wet-floor basement ceilings, mostly all 14-gage into 20-amp breakers in an old corroded panel, but with a newer CH panel for one of the floors. No fastening of J-boxes or Receptacle Boxes and forget about covers on such. No GFCI anywhere, and the list gets long -- can almost circle every item in the residential sections of the NEC. Exposed wiring stapled to walls throughout the builiding -- through walls, outside then back in and so forth.
Then, I learned that just a few years ago he had new meter socket panels, new meters, new feed and weatherhead, etc., accepted and connected to the old service panels with all the terrible conditions listed. Guy claims to be an electrical expert too and blames most stuff on bad tenants (sure, most of them would pull out good wiring to make it bad and replace 12-gage proper wiring with improper 14-gage physical-damage prone right to the old, old, old 20 amp breakers, right? -- and then cover with 15 years of something like cobweb-in-a-can.
Any comments that would be more productive than the boot kick reflex I am holding back. Convince me that no sympathy is deserved, that I should rightly order the whole place correctly re-wired and keep it condemned until that and all the other stuff are fixed. Just the NEC section on "workmanlike manner" is violated beyond belief. Convince me to tell the utility to not hook him back up even if he complains about me to the Public Service Commission (let them Order me to let him have unsafe wiring!). Then convince me I get to do the boot kick too.
I would post pictures, but #1 I don't know if I can here, and #2 you wouldn't be able to digest lunch for a few days if you saw them.
Thanks for letting me vent. If I slandered the guy whose but my shoe is aimed at, I doubt if he will recognize who I am talking about (identification is required for defamation) and do you think it likely a contractor (he has a business as such!) landlord like that would even be reading a thoughtful and caring forum like this?
I still have to count to 10 about 100 more times.
Best regards toi all.
