HI licensing NYS

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pierre

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I am not too sure if this has been brought up here, but effective Jan 1, 2006 all HI inspectors are required to be licensed. They cannot work under the company license, each individual is required to take a test and pass to get his license to inspect in NYS. This will be interesting to see.

Now imagine that there is still no licensing law in effect in NYS for electricians :eek: , I do not understand the reasoning that goes on in the state capitol when these kind of decisions are made.
 
Re: HI licensing NYS

Interesting. I've wondered in the past, which aspect in construction is more important - Licensing or Inspection? Any thoughts? The obvious is that they go hand in hand, both are important. But if you had to choose?
 
Re: HI licensing NYS

Originally posted by pierre:
I do not understand the reasoning that goes on in the state capitol when these kind of decisions are made.
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Here is a guess, a lot of tradespeople complained that the HIs out of control and need to be regulated.

Of course the tradespeople themselves do not want regulation as they 'know what they are doing'. :roll:

I can not imagine working without both licensing and inspections.
 
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What I meant with my comment is, how come the Home Inspector is required to take xx amount of class hours of training, and then has to pass a licensing test in order to do home inspections?
Yet the electrical inspector has absolutely no requirements in NYS at all!!!! If I walked my dog by homes and businesses in NYS for any length of time and decided to become an electrical inspector in NYS, there is no law against such a thing..... as a matter of fact, there is a situation going on near me where the local legislature is being persuaded to hire a GC as both the electrical and plumbing inspector for a large area (a whole county). He is very persuasive, if you get my drift!!!
There is no law to stop this, just the fact it is being considered is .... well I cannot state my true feelings here :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
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Licensing is a means to have qualified people doing the work in hopes of code compliant results.Inspections are to insure the above has happened.Both fall short of goals.
The system could and should improve.Far too many areas have electricians that have no license or even the requirement for one on the job.This leaves the problem in the hands of an inspector to try and find all the violations in a short amount of time.And when permits are not even pulled then we deal with the outcome of no inspections and perhaps no insurance.
:mad: :mad: :mad:
 
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Licensing the HI is a step in right direction.Put some pressure on the county /city to do the same for electricians and electrical inspectors.Will likely be tough job.
 
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as a matter of fact, there is a situation going on near me where the local legislature is being persuaded to hire a GC as both the electrical and plumbing inspector for a large area (a whole county).
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Is this in Putnam County? I have a friend who's an electrician there and he told me that there has been a long fight to get some kind of licensing.

As far as a statewide electricians license I don't think that you'll see it in NYS. Too much political influence and money to be made at the local level. And forget about a Journeyman license. New York City tried years ago to require all electricians working on fire alarm systems to be licensed. After a few years of fighting they canned the idea.
 
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Putnam County does have a county wide licence. Just recently they abolished the homeowner being able to do their own electrical work.
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Could I be thinking of Dutchess County?
 
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I left NYC in 83 and glad I did .When I watched an inspector take a check to pass a job I knew i was in the wrong area.Somw of the things I saw done would make your hair curl.Even receed to baldness :eek:
 
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About a year ago I interviewed for a job with a company that does home inspections, but employs only Professional Engineers. The only test I would have had to take was related to termites and other pests.

Edited to add: This is in the Seattle area, and I turned down the job opportunity.

[ November 25, 2005, 11:34 AM: Message edited by: charlie b ]
 
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Putnam County... just recently they abolished the homeowner being able to do their own electrical work.

As much as I like that I think it's going to open a can of worms. Now even the conscientious homeowners won't be getting inspections. Until you make the materials unavailable to homeowners it's just going to be business as usual.

-Hal
 
Re: HI licensing NYS

From the Putnam County NY website:
Homeowner Electrician License. The Board may issue a Homeowner Electrician's License, which shall authorize a homeowner to perform electrical work on the homeowner's residence. There shall be an application fee of fifty dollars ($50.00) for administration of the Homeowner Electrician test. Upon passing the test, a fee of fifty dollars ($50.00) is required for the Homeowner Electrician's License. The Homeowner Electrician's License shall expire one year from the passing of the test and may be renewed for only one additional year upon the approval of the Board and upon payment of a fifty dollar ($50.00) renewal fee.

Not to long ago, I took the homeowner test in a nearby county (Rockland County NY), and there was no way in heck that a homeowner could have passed. The examiner was surprised that I passed (I wrote down in the application that I was a Laborer). :) Aren't we all laborers at home?
 
Re: HI licensing NYS

Ron
I see what you posted, but Putnam may not have updated their website as of yet.

You are correct, that homeowners will still do their own work, but that happens anyway. When it comes time to sell is usually when that comes back to bite them, as the sale cannot occur until an inspection for work that is not on their title, comes to light. As an inspector, our company was performing these type of inspections on average 20 per week. 95% failed and had to be rewired. There are many jurisdictions that have made the homeowner open the walls, even kitchens and bathrooms. I was in court for 2 of them, and the homeowners lost both cases. Not only did they eventually open the walls, but one action took so long, they lost the sale of the house to that particular client. So much for fighting City Hall.
 
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an inspection for work that is not on their title, comes to light.
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I understood everything except this. Could you give an example. I don't recall seeing anything of this nature on any of my titles. I'm old and all those years of checking for hot wires with my fingers has taken it's toll. :D
 
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g3
When the house is for sale, the work that was added, and is not shown on the documents at the building dept, will raise a flag and incur an appropriate inspection, such as plumbing, framing and electrical.

The reason there are so many in this area, is a lot of work was performed in the past without permits, and now these people are selling their homes. There are also a lot of homes in this area that for one reason or the other do not have C.O.s and the bank will not sell/buy without them.

We even had one with a house of approximately 5,000 sq ft that was built 7 years ago, and the owner never got permits (it is back on large piece of property). He was trying to sell, it took him almost 9 months to make all of the corrections and lots of $$$. I bet he doesn't try that again ;) .
BTW- he wasn't mad at all about having to take walls down, etc... :p
Examples of work:
no venting in the baths
no bonding of any of the jacuzzis,and no boxes for all of those splices
box fill
Framing issues


He even tried to add a kitchen in the basement during the process of cleaning up the other work. He had his friend do that, and it had to come back out.
He told the building department he didn't think they would notice the new kitchen, and he would just sneak it in, trying to make up some of the lost money from the repairs...that is some nerve!! :eek:
 
Re: HI licensing NYS

Gotcha, thanks Pierre. My head was stuck at the title company instead of the obvious building department. :roll:
 
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