Legal Restrictions on DIY in USA? (Gas, water, electric)

[zxcvbob]

Do you really think your taxes will go down when someone else's goes up? It *should* be a zero sum gain, but you should be old enough to know that taxes don't go down.

-Bob

[Tom Horne]

John The reason that most knowledgeable people comply with the requirements for permits and inspections is that anything done without a permit is not insured. If unpermitted work causes a casualty loss to the home it is not covered by the insurance policy. So if you perform unpermitted electrical work on your home and that work causes a fire the resultant loss is uninsured.

-- Tom H

[Ignoramus23498]

permit/inspection

Someone told me that if a fire occurs, and any unpermitted work is found, insurance will be denied even if the change did not cause a fire.

Example. I install a receptacle in the kitchen without a permit. Then, some time later, a drunk friend comes in, falls asleep with a cigarette, the cigarette lights up the couch and the house burns down.

According to my friend's theory, if the insurance adjustor finds an unpermitted receptacle, my insurance will be denied. Is that actually true?

I tend not to believe it, but am curious.

Thanks

i

[Joseph Meehan]

In the long run yes, or more to the point if everyone else's property is revalued to 50% of what it should be and mine remains at what it should be, just how long do you believe the agencies receiving tax funding based on those taxes will wait until they demand more money.

Trust me on this. I just retired from 30 years of working in the local tax industry.

[JhnWil875]

I was not suggesting that people should not comply with the permit/inspection system, I was just questioning the wisdom of the system as it relates to gas, water and electricity instalations and suggesting that it should be abolished as it serves no useful purpose although other Postsers have disagreed.

Anyone whose work is so bad that it causes a fire should not do the work in the first place although if their work is that shoddy then they are probably so badly mentally incapacitated that they would not be able to realise that they were unable to do the work to a safe standard.

John.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

You should be old enough to know that making blanket statements is not a good ideal also. My taxes went down a few years ago. stayed the same for three more. My not happen often, but it does. One reason for the decrease was re-evaluation. Some previous undervalued properties were brought in line making the contribution more equitable. Ed

[Minnie Bannister]

That is why I recently advised somebody to seek the services of "an expert -- or, failing that, a professional."

MB

On 03/01/04 04:39 am JhnWil875 put fingers to keyboard and launched the following message into cyberspace:

[Tom Horne]

There is an old proverb that reads in part "He who knows not and knows not he knows not is a fool shun him." In localities that that have a trained inspection force, and make it easy for a homeowner to obtain a permit, the inspection process guards against a well intentioned but unqualified home owner imperiling her/his family and neighbors. There is no system that can completely guard against a scofflaw incompetent.

-- Tom H

[norminn]

clipped

Those are the dorks most likely to consider their own work the best - they don't know good work, and their's is "cheaper". The number of folks with no regard for the law is amazing, as well. I'm just a housewife with a little DIY ability. I have a neighbor whom I have helped finish concrete, re-do a lock installation, pressure wash, paint, re-build door. He has worked for hire, his work is crap, and he is juvenile and impulsive. Considers himself a craftsman. He's fallen off roofs, been told to stay off ladders due to vertigo, and he still goes at it. Another neighbor worked on a live electrical line with a toddler running around the house. He got a load of new kitchen cabinets delivered and was going to leave them outdoors with rain threatening. I don't think these guys had mothers :o)

[Tom Horne]

permit/inspection

That may be true someplace but it is not true in the areas of the US that I've served as a firefighter. We often find all sorts of bogus work during the investigation of a fire but unless that work is the cause of the fire we don't even report it unless it rises to the level of a clear and present danger. The principal involved here is that the nature of the insurance contract is what is called a "contract of utmost good faith." Both parties to the contract have an obligation to reveal to the other anything that can effect the likelihood of a loss or the ability to pay for that loss. Both sides have an additional obligation under that type of contract to scrupulously obey the law in anything that affects the contract. The idea of insuring against the consequences of your own unlawful act is considered a legal absurdity. My four semesters that covered various aspects of fire service law don't make me a lawyer and YMMV.

-- Tom H

[avoidspam]

Just like p[ricesnot going down if you stop for the door nazi on the way out of a store.

[Ignoramus23498]

permit/inspection

thanks for your excellent post.

I try to install my receptacles to the code.

i

[Melinda Meahan - remove TRASH]

Which is exactly why they do the inspections in teh first place.

[Melinda Meahan - remove TRASH]

(ROTFL) Most of those folks don't realize they are doing it all wrong.