Turn someone in

A

AC\DC

Senior Member
Location
Florence,Oregon,Lane
Occupation
EC
There’s an HVAC guy in town. He’s gotten busted three times for doing work. He’s not supposed to. He’s supposedly stopped. ended up switching from me to other people I was more expensive but I still like the guy I found out the day through a mutual client and contractor that he’s doing work for him. he told him hey you pull the permit and I’ll do all the electrical that way it saves you 1000 bucks now I know this guy is doing his bad habits. Should I warn him that someone’s gonna bite his ass or should I turn them in?
He doesn’t know what he’s doing and he causes lots of damage, but you know people don’t know when people don’t really care.

I’ve caught him just running THHN no conduit stub through wrapped around underneath the home. He didn’t like me because I told you Owner hey this ain’t , right
 
Many years ago there was a contractor up here that did shoddy work, every circuit ocp was 30 amp single poles, #12 or #14 wire. A homeowner that was a retired electrician turned him into the board. He lost his electrical license, but was able to keep his plumber’s license. I went behind him on a commercial building he had wired, he used shallow cut in boxes with two 12-2’s in each, every time they plugged something in, it tripped the breaker because it shorted out to the back of the metal box. I noticed a brown piece of romex going into the panel. It was a 14-2 on a 30 amp breaker feeding a 4500 watt water heater!
 
We haven’t had inspections here all that long of a time. We apparently still don’t have a fire marshal yet. I was at a doctors office today, the building is probably 20 years old, only ADA compliance is a wheel chair ramp that was added in the past couple of years, and door sizes. All doorknobs are round, not lever. They have exit lights in the lobby, but no egress lighting. Only the chain stores in the county have the proper egress lighting and ADA compliance. One of the county owned voting precincts has the two required exits, but the back exit is onto a porch 15’ off the ground with no steps or ramp. If there was a fire, you are jumping over a railing.
 
hillbilly1 said:
We haven’t had inspections here all that long of a time. We apparently still don’t have a fire marshal yet. I was at a doctors office today, the building is probably 20 years old, only ADA compliance is a wheel chair ramp that was added in the past couple of years, and door sizes. All doorknobs are round, not lever. They have exit lights in the lobby, but no egress lighting. Only the chain stores in the county have the proper egress lighting and ADA compliance. One of the county owned voting precincts has the two required exits, but the back exit is onto a porch 15’ off the ground with no steps or ramp. If there was a fire, you are jumping over a railing.
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I bet it’s awesome to build on your property though. Here you can’t build on most of the land
 
AC\DC said:
I bet it’s awesome to build on your property though. Here you can’t build on most of the land
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The county is not super strict, we have no zoning other than RV parks, other than a fifty foot setback from creeks and streams. But that is a state regulation. Oh! And a elevation restriction, which is also a state regulation, you can’t build over a certain height on a peak.
 
hillbilly1 said:
We haven’t had inspections here all that long of a time. We apparently still don’t have a fire marshal yet. I was at a doctors office today, the building is probably 20 years old, only ADA compliance is a wheel chair ramp that was added in the past couple of years, and door sizes. All doorknobs are round, not lever. They have exit lights in the lobby, but no egress lighting. Only the chain stores in the county have the proper egress lighting and ADA compliance. One of the county owned voting precincts has the two required exits, but the back exit is onto a porch 15’ off the ground with no steps or ramp. If there was a fire, you are jumping over a railing.
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Also none of the outlets in the doctors office were hospital grade. They had a suspended ceiling, and I have no doubt it was wired in romex too. It was purposely built as a doctor’s office, so there was no excuses.
 
I've never turned anyone in but I would have in some cases if I'd known who did the work. I was competing against every electrician but also against every handyman and leaf raker who also did electrical work. Fixed a lot of slop, walked away from some when customer didn't want to pay for a good fix. I tried to never stick my hands in if they wouldn't fix it. Then I would be last one in and first to blame if something had gone wrong.
 
jmellc said:
I've never turned anyone in but I would have in some cases if I'd known who did the work. I was competing against every electrician but also against every handyman and leaf raker who also did electrical work. Fixed a lot of slop, walked away from some when customer didn't want to pay for a good fix. I tried to never stick my hands in if they wouldn't fix it. Then I would be last one in and first to blame if something had gone wrong.
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It’s called job security! LOL!
 
AC\DC said:
There’s an HVAC guy in town. He’s gotten busted three times for doing work. He’s not supposed to. He’s supposedly stopped. ended up switching from me to other people I was more expensive but I still like the guy I found out the day through a mutual client and contractor that he’s doing work for him. he told him hey you pull the permit and I’ll do all the electrical that way it saves you 1000 bucks now I know this guy is doing his bad habits. Should I warn him that someone’s gonna bite his ass or should I turn them in?
He doesn’t know what he’s doing and he causes lots of damage, but you know people don’t know when people don’t really care.

I’ve caught him just running THHN no conduit stub through wrapped around underneath the home. He didn’t like me because I told you Owner hey this ain’t , right
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For me it would depend on how egregious the violations are, and dangerous. I'm not typically one to stick my nose in other people's business but nothing chaps my hide more than unknowing customers paying for bad or dangerous work. My guess is that if you turn him in, he'll get fined but wouldn't lose his HVAC license. So really just a slap on the wrist to sober him up from doing stupid stuff.

The job that really got to me was a friend of a friend who bought their first house that had been flipped by someone who had no business doing construction. The buyers ended up spending many tens of thousands to fix stuff and ignore the stuff that was wrong but not unsafe. The sellers probably made over $100k profit and were able to just walk away. I thought they should have pursued legal action but I don't know if they ever did.

Rob

Rob G
Seattle
 
I have a whole process in place for protecting my snitches, er, I mean sources. Gotta take good care of yer narcs, or they stop narcin'. I want to start a reward system for whistleblowers where they get a gift card or something out of the double permit fee when they give us a good tip, but my bosses won't let me... We charge a double fee for work without a permit.
 
hey man that why people don’t do nothing- permits and fees are a joke- half the time they don’t even get out of the car—- that’s a different scam, I am talking about doing work your not qualified for—-
 
AC\DC said:
hey man that why people don’t do nothing- permits and fees are a joke- half the time they don’t even get out of the car—- that’s a different scam, I am talking about doing work your not qualified for—-
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The number one thing permits are for, is increasing tax valuations, safety is secondary. I did a bunch of retail shops, the inspector looked at the first one, then on the rest he didn’t even get out of the car! He would ask if it was like the last one? And I would say yes, then he would hand me the sticker out of the window, and say go put it on!
 
In all seriousness, the real problem here is not that the guy is doing unsafe things, or that he is skirting the permit and inspection and licensing process, or that he is taking work that more competent installers could be doing. While those things sometimes result in real-world problems, 95% of such antics have no real-life consequences.

The real problem is that this guy is a con artist and he is swindling people by promising them a mostly professional install for a cheaper price. He is taking advantage of people who don't know any better, and sometimes they have to pay someone competent to come back and fix it later. Whether he knows he's a con artist or if he has good intentions, the reality is that he is still a con artist. He is swindling people who can't afford to be swindled. If he only works for sleazy landlords, that is one thing - they know they are getting by on the cheap and don't care about shoddy work. Ripping off nice old ladies on a fixed income who trusted his aw-shucks-I-been-doing-this-for-thirty-years routine is quite another.

People are already hiring him because he is cheaper and they don't have the money in the first place, so when they have to turn around and pay someone else to fix it too is a real problem. Such individuals are rarely collectible if you sue them, so the owner will be left holding the bag.
 
hillbilly1 said:
I noticed a brown piece of romex going into the panel. It was a 14-2 on a 30 amp breaker feeding a 4500 watt water heater!
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Assuming a 240 volt circuit that should not turn the NM brown...sure a code violation, but the load is less than the 75°C ampacity of the 14 AWG.
 
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