Permits & Inspections

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Banned
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South of the Border in Houston, Texas
At what point do you not pull permits?

If a residential customer calls & wants to add a plug in the hall for a night light or vacuum cleaner use do you pull a permit? You know you are required to!

If a commercial customer calls & wants to add a plug in the conference room for a projector do you pull a permit? You know you are required to!

If a customer insist on no permit(regardless of the scope of work) what do you do?

What is the largest job you have ever done without pulling a permit?

What is the smallest job you have pulled a permit for?

What is your deciding factor to pull or not to pull a permit?


To pull, or not to pull: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to bootleg
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against an inspector,
And by opposing end them? To bootleg: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to inspection wish'd. To bootleg, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to inspect: ay, there's the rub;
For in that certificate of inspection what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bootleg the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised inspections, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would avoid inspections,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather inspect those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great inspections and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Inspect all my sins o? inspector. Robert Shakespeare (william?s lil brother),,,, Master Electrician

 
some munisipalities don't require permits for all electrical work. I only need to pull permits for about 5% of the work I do. But I quess that is why I see so much HACK work around, maybe we should get tougher around here but the fire restoration guys are eating goooooood.
 
I confess; We do alot of service work and small jobs where a permit would be technically required and we rarely pull them. The permit process is a pain in the a__ and with a minimum charge of $79.00 it would mean not getting the job in many cases. It could add $200.00 to a $100.00 'add a recept.' job. Also, many customers are afraid to have an inspector around.

I have been watching this forum for awhile now and know that many of you will think this is foolish, but out here in So CA you don't need to be licensed to do work under $500.00 and alot of handymen are not even legal U.S. residents! So we fudge and do the best we can in the market we are in.

The largest job without a permit? I'll never tell!!

Bob on the left coast.
 
I pull a permit whenever the law says I have to, which is for everything except "minor repair work". When in doubt whether something qualifies as minor repair work, I call the chief inspector and let him make the call. Sometimes he says I need one, sometimes not.

The state is getting serious about going after violations of the electrical laws. I know a guy who got caught doing a job without a permit, and he was officially warned that he better not let that happen again. My licenses and bank account are in good standing, and I want to keep them that way.

Fortunately, the minimum permit fee in state jurisdiction is only $20, and the state inspectors pretty much stick to inspecting what's listed on the permit unless there's an egregious, obvious violation they happen to see. Every now and then I get someone who insists on skipping the permit/inspection process, and I tell them it's not optional. For the most part, though, people don't object to inspections.
 
Adding something to an existing wall with the wall covered by means of "fishing it", no to the permit. If studs are exposed and your are adding more than one outlet, yes. Ultimately it is up to you, the person who is doing the job, to do the right thing. I had a customer who received some bad advice from some clowns who thought that they knew more than the city did when it comes to obtaining permits. After I repeatedly told him to get the permits and follow the rules, he decided to listen to his buddies. To make a long story short, he got hammered and hammered good. I didn't say anything to him but I offered my services as an electrician and told him I wouldn't be as harsh on him as the city was, but he was going to have to pay for the permit.
 
Someone recently posted a warning on the local craiglist.org where he told his story about getting in trouble for hiring a hack. It seems the hack told the HO to pull a permit, and somehow the AHJ figured out what was going on and nailed the HO, who now has to defend himself on criminal charges of false statements on an electrical permit (i.e., the part where you sign your name swearing that you're going to be doing the work yourself).
 
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