Someone working under someone elses permit...

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MrHopper

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What problems would arise if you had a permit pulled, and another lic. electrician did work on the building without your permission?

Situation, based in Ohio,
We have a bunch of units to wire in a single building, we bid against other electricians and were awarded the job. Now we're 40% done, but have unfortunatly butted heads a few times with the GC. We know we were supposed to be starting the next few units soon.

Today we noticed the one being inspected, to our amazement it was wired. We called the building department and asked who had it inspected. It was the guy we beat out(he wired the last set of units in another building), then we asked if he had a permit, the answer was no. He worked under our permit. had it inspected under our permit, all without us knowing, well he thought so at least.

This seems to be among other things quite wrong as well as a little scary. We don't know what kind of work this guy does first of all. So the liability is on us. Anyone been in this situation? Any suggestions?
 
I have been in a situation similar to that. I wired a builders brothers house but he decided to finish it himself. When he called for inspection and failed they called me and said it did not look like my work.

Good reason-- it wasn't. I had the inspection department take my name off the permit and they made the HO get the permit. Not much else you can do.
 
Wasn't there a similar post about a year or so ago? (I'll search a bit)

At the very least, I would contact the licensing board (if there is one in that area) and expain all the "W's" (Who, what, when, where, hoW) to them.


EDIT to add:
Similar story here Sometimes I Wonder??? (I don't think this was exactly what I was looking for though)

EDIT to add:
Yup, that's the thread
 
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As stated above- have building dept. take you off the permit. We had a few contractor/owners who liked to do their own plumbing and the PC pulled their name from the permit.(5 times this happened on same job)
 
Yes it did!:confused: It was as frustrating for us (building dept.) as it was for the PC's. It was a four building apt complex and the 1st building had 1 PC, the 2nd had two, third had 1, and the 4th had 2. O.k. maybe six PC's. The owner snuck into the site at night and roughed and trimmed the plumbing system.

I just re-read, PC is plumbing contractor!
 
First as long as there is a permit the inspector usually does not care who is doing the work. I know that doesn't sound right, but it's reality.

Second, he can not work under your permit without your permission, that's assuming that you pulled the permit and not the GC.

Third your are responsible for any work done under your permit.

Fourth, run, don't walk to the building department with a letter, perferably notarized, that you did not do the work, and be specific, and if you are pulling off the job, let them know that you are no longer responsible for the work being done and have them cancel your permit.
 
Hate to sound like a bad guy here but is there any chance that you took on a little more work than you could man? Was the GC trying to meet a deadline and hired the other crew to make good on his deadline. Now this does not make it ok for the other EC to work under your permit by no means. I have been in the same situation, we wired part of a complex but we had the other permit released then took out our own, because the other EC could not meet deadlines.

It seems on an apartment complex they are really aggressive on the project schedule and you have to have quite a few people to be on the project. They are like hotels and motels, up fast and hard. I think the guys here are saying the same thing I would. Write a letter to the inspection office and remove your name from that portion of work.
 
celtic said:
WOW!

Are the property owners getting hit with fines?
Click to expand...

The guy doing the work was the property owner and unfortunately, no, we took the problems to a county level(we are city) and it didn't go much farther? maybe noone could catch him in the act, the pipe fairies did it!:grin:
 
dduffee260 said:
Hate to sound like a bad guy here but is there any chance that you took on a little more work than you could man? Was the GC trying to meet a deadline and hired the other crew to make good on his deadline.

Actually no, we, like all the other contractors in Ohio are looking for work in April. We had plenty of time to do the work. We called the GC who said he was in South Carolina and would get with us when he got back to do the next section. Well now we have people doing work under our permit. And yes it was pulled by us, not the GC, so it is ours. As well as our liability.
Click to expand...
 
call your state licensing board and ask questions
it cant hurt also a letter from the local ambulance chasher
may work even better
 
Bottom line is that you are responsible for all work done under your permit. Either get your name off of the permit, or get reimbursed enough that you are comfortable with the liability. Also you are required to supervise all work that is done under your license. That is pretty tough to do when you don't know that the work is being done. A long talk with the licensing board is in order.
 
MrHopper said:
Today we noticed the one being inspected, to our amazement it was wired. We called the building department and asked who had it inspected. It was the guy we beat out(he wired the last set of units in another building), then we asked if he had a permit, the answer was no. He worked under our permit. had it inspected under our permit, all without us knowing, well he thought so at least.
Click to expand...

If you have the permit and contract to do the work then send the General Contractor an invoice for the work that was done. ( not your fault if someone wishes to donate some free labor ).

I'll bet this will get straighened out quick enough.
 
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I'm not entirely sure but it seems to me that around here the permit is for the property and not issued to a specific contractor.
 
As anyone who is not even in our industry could tell from reading this thread, this is totally screwed up. And it would seem that all of the different opinions offered are due to different rulings by different jurisdictions.

Me,
I WOULD HIRE AN ATTORNEY AND GIVE IT HELL!!!

That is my license and my livelyhood, how I feed my family and my ITEGRITY. No way would I let this go on.
 
I had an similar situation in a major retailers building. We were doing the interior remodel and they had subbed an out of state contractor to hook up the compactor(208 run about 20'). The outside contractor was not licensed in MI and was not able to pull a permit, they called me and asked me to pull it, I told them for $10,000 I would look it over and pull the permit, needless to say they got someone else.

On another note, I do not want to hijack the thread, I get opportunities to bid work in other states and know I would win the contracts, some with large cushions. Do you guys go through all the trouble to get licensed in the states or do you find contractors to "buddy" up with? Just in the last few weeks I have had chances to bid work in Wisconsin, Chicago, Kentucky, Florida, Idaho, and a few others. I have done a lot of work for the retailers and know how to bid them and make money, these jobs look like more than they are on prints and unless you have done one you would always come in high.
 
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