Everyone wants to be an electrician

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If the utility company is called out to disconnect service - for any reason - they will restore the power without a "temp card/cut-in card" from an approved inspection company. That means a permit and filing fees as well as an inspection.
 
I guess I don't understand why the E.C. has to take the liability when there is a perfectly good AHJ somewhere ,.. do you guys get to inspect your own work ,..or that of your electrician buddies?? Also after such an inspection are you then allowed to be the E.C. who "Fixes" it ??? and then do you get to inspect it again ??? This is a good Idea but I think it needs improvement
 
M. D. said:
I guess I don't understand why the E.C. has to take the liability when there is a perfectly good AHJ somewhere ,.. do you guys get to inspect your own work ,..or that of your electrician buddies?? Also after such an inspection are you then allowed to be the E.C. who "Fixes" it ??? and then do you get to inspect it again ??? This is a good Idea but I think it needs improvement
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I dont know if this was directed to me or not.

Im not sure how the procedures go, My boss cant seem to give me a straight answer.
The way I think it goes is that someone moves into a house and requests the power to be turned on. The city then has code enforcement come out and make sure there are no code violations and saftey issues. If there are any issues the inspector red tags it with a list of defects and notes that a permit must be pulled by a certified EC and corrections to be made and inspected.

Now,, I dont know why but it seems that we are being called first to come check and note what the inspector may flag as a violation and give a price to fix it.

If it were up to me, I would tell those who are requesting power to go ahead and go through the POCO, let them do their thing and if there are any violations, call us and we will do our thing.

What gets me though is, some inspectors will not flag for GFCI protection in kitchens, baths and outdoors but some will. I have yet to see an inspector go into an attic or under a house and this is where you can find some of those open wire joints, wire not run properly and other violations.

I have been on quite a few of these types of jobs and have seen violations that the inspector has missed but am told not to touch it because it was not flagged.
 
aftershock said:
Here is another meter puback that I went on last week as well. And again, code enforcement has not been called out yet, we were called first.
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Problem #1: Panel is Zinsco
Problem #2: Panel is Zinsco.

I AM surprised to see that DP 30 amp breaker actually tripped.
 
Meter put backs dont help with sharp lanlords that have power turned back on in there own names just after tenant leaves or simply keep it in there own names and charge tenant for the electric bill. Slum lords could care less if building burns. Usually they make out great with insurance money. I had to inspect many old houses so they could get insurance. Never let anything bad go unfixed. Dont like my report then hire someone else. I sleep good at night and not helping a slum lord kill people to get him money.
 
After reading what some of the policies are in other places I didn't see a policy like ours, which seems to make the most sense.

If the power has been off for over 6 months, the POCO will not re connect without a "re connect" permit from the city/county. So the HO gets the permit then calls for inspection. The inspector either passes it or fails it and writes out a list of what needs to be done to pass. A licensed person must do the work. Normally they just ask for GFCI's, smokes, ground rods and cover plates. If the place is really bad they will require some major upgrading.

However, there is usually more stuff than the inspector noticed in his brief visit. This tends to shift liability back to the licensed person, once he has been in there, doing work.

Needless to say, these calls are usually better off walking away from, unless the owner is willing to do much more than the minimum required by the AHJ. Most of the time it is a realtor trying to sell the place, wanting to spend as little as possible.
 
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