Just Hook Up These Few Circuits, Please

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Just Hook Up These Few Circuits, Please

  • Do the job. Take the money. Move on.

    Votes: 5 10.4%

  • Politely decline (excuse - too busy, etc.)

    Votes: 4 8.3%

  • Politely decline (tell them you are not comfortable with hooking-up others work)

    Votes: 36 75.0%

  • Impolitely decline (tell them to stay out of electrical work)

    Votes: 3 6.3%
  • Total voters
    48
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I've turned in plenty of handymen and others for illegally advertising electrical work. The state takes prompt action, and the guy in charge of enforcement even sends me messages from time to time showing me what he's up to, and thanking me for bringing all the hacks' ads to his attention. The ads then either get changed or dropped altogether. I know I won't stop all the hacks, but I'm going to do what I can to make sure they don't advertise where I do.

As for turning in customers or potential customers, that's a bit trickier. It's a big conflict of interest for me, as I'm pretty sure anyone I would turn in is not going to be interested in hiring me after I send the AHJ after them. And if word were to spread that if someone has me come out for an estimate, they better be sure I don't see anything suspicious because I'll probably turn them in, I think my business could come to a grinding halt. In this case, the guy was sincerely interested in having me make things right. Also, when I called the inspector and ran the scenario past him, he didn't ask me for the address, so he apparently doesn't see a pressing need to send out the troops.

Anyway, if he ever puts the house on the market, he'll get nailed by the truth-in-housing inspector. The AHJ in his city is very strict, and they are very good at detecting when hack work has been done. In those situations, the city requires the HO to hire a licensed EC to inspect and sign off on whatever the truth-in-housing inspector finds, and he'll have no choice but to make the installation code compliant at that time. Interestingly enough, the EC can fix the problems and then sign off on his own work!
 
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"the truth-in-housing inspector finds"

What exactly is this? My house was never checked that I know of, I just bought it one year ago. I am guilty of adding my own electrical additions within my own home, I am a real electrician mind you, but I didnt pull a permit to hook up my spa, add exterior lights, or exterior receps, or change out every device and light in the house.

I dont think my area does this check, even so I guess I could sign off on my own house if the time came!
 
Around these parts, if you want to put your house on the market, you have to have it inspected first. These are generally called something like "truth in housing" or "time of sale" inspections. Depending on the jurisdiction, the inspector might be a city employee, or it might be a private contractor licensed to do these inspections. The report must be filed with the city and made available to any prospective buyer. If there are any items listed as required repairs, they must be taken care of within a certain period of time of closing.

In the jurisdiction in question, the inspectors are city employees, and my experience with them is that they are thorough and very good at finding electrical work that was done without a permit.
 
As an electrical contractor, i have never added any wiring to my home without a permit, i value my largest investement, my home, and would never consider risking it all, to save a few dollars for a permit, my homeowners policy requires permits, and inspections.
 
"Well, I happen to have confidence in my work "

It has nothing to do with your work ability, i am sure you do excellant work, permits, and inspections, are required by most insurance companies, to keep your policy whole, cities, and towns, do not have permits and inspections, to make money. in most cases they break even, or loose money operating code enforcement, also some worry, their taxes will go up, this concern is a throw back, from the 50's when construction permit costs were left on the books, today they have revaluation mandated, so the tax charge for improvements becomes a wash after 5 years in most areas.

It's the insurance underwriters that require inspections, so they can adjust risk.
 
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OK, Jeff.....the potential customer/trainee spoke spanish.....You are going to see a lot more of this....your best bet is to take a conversational spanish course at your local college or tech school....next, customer did not have much mucho....about 99% of my customers are flat broke and want a whopping big discount....live in $500,000 houses and cannot afford to pay the pool guy!! Yea, right! Give the guy a bid to redue his mess-up or just walk away.....AS far as hurting my business by turning in someone.....I have to sleep at night....The inspector/authority has been notified of the problem...whether they react is no longer my concern! WILDMAN
 
I have no interest in re-learning my forgotten high-school Spanish or any more foreign languages. It's just not worth the trouble. There are plenty of immigrants in this area who don't speak Spanish but speak Lao, Cambodian, Hmong, Vietnamese, Somali, Russian, etc. I'm not about to learn all those languages. I have a hard enough time discussing electrical work with people in English.

Besides, Se?or DIY told me that lots of his compadres do illegal electrical work, so I'm guessing that few in the Spanish-speaking community are looking to pay electrician rates when they can get one of their amigos to do the work on the cheap.
 
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Jeff - I"m with you. Immigrants from all over are here as well, and I believe that English is the language of out great country. I just think it would be good for Wildman to take a course in Spanish. He seems to have a much mucho difficulty with it. :D
 
Jeff and Minuteman....did not realize the subject was so touchy....do not want the "mod" squad to come down hard on me for getting into politics so I will end it here....thanks for your response!....by the way....minuteman.....jalapenos ....much dinero....wildman
 
I would want to get in to more detail, then just telling them I'm not comfortable with hooking up someone else's work - heck it's my license at stake, and I've dealt with some people, and due to their nature (trying to get something for nothing), it is hard at times to stay polite.

Brett
 
Espanol

Espanol

Jeff and Minuteman....I did not intend to get off on the wrong foot.....I have been very busy since july 26....I will try and be brief and too the point....
At Mike Holt .com.....far left corner....where you click on "code forum"...keep looking down....."code quiz".....Continuous education....."Espanol"...click on Espanol....this will take you to www.cyamsa.com....I believe this to be Spanish!! If Mike Holt cares enough to include this site on his, it would not hurt to learn a little conversational spanish to attempt to read it....not trying to be rude, just curious.....No vietnamese or Russian....only Spanish!...Thanks for letting me into your hearts!! Wildman
 
We are not going to discuss the pros and cons of learning another language here on the code forum.

Feel free to continue the discussion via private messaging.

Bob
 
wildman said:
Jeff and Minuteman....I did not intend to get off on the wrong foot.....I have been very busy since july 26....I will try and be brief and too the point....
At Mike Holt .com.....far left corner....where you click on "code forum"...keep looking down....."code quiz".....Continuous education....."Espanol"...click on Espanol....this will take you to www.cyamsa.com....I believe this to be Spanish!! If Mike Holt cares enough to include this site on his, it would not hurt to learn a little conversational spanish to attempt to read it....not trying to be rude, just curious.....No vietnamese or Russian....only Spanish!...Thanks for letting me into your hearts!! Wildman
Click to expand...


wildman said:
........next, customer did not have much mucho....
Click to expand...

You seem to have misunderstood me. I was only cracking wise because you so butchered the little Spanish you used. Now that I think about it, maybe it was an intentional joke that you made. I don't know.

My two children from my 1st wife are 1/4 Hispanic. I have been to Mexico about a dozen times doing electric work for my Missionary friend. Y, s? que suficiente espa?ol para obtener por.
 
If the homeowner knows up front that I get to inspect and change the wiring if needed. Only if the other electrician is finished with either the homeowner or contractor; will I consider entering the job. Normally I can clean things up, but it might take a long L o n g time and maybe more materials to do, or redo; but when I leave it's as if I had done the job and there would be no questions about how it was done. If I need to explain the ins and outs of the electrical code to the homeowner I also explain to them that it's costing him $1.50 a minute to do so.
 
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