In Great Britain a householder can do his own electric and water and installations/alterations with no legal restrictions or qualification requirements although with Gas there is a legal requirement that you must be "Competent to do so" and "Keep to safe and appropriate standards" obviously this is sensible for water and electric but not mandatory and there are no mandatory standards for electricity alterations/installations just guidelines from the institute of electrical engineers.
Are there any legal restrictions/requirements for a homeowner installing/altering gas, water and electric in the USA?
Restrictions are local options, there is no universal code.
In most places the homeowner can do the work, but much of the work requires permits and inspections. Generally the owner can not do their own work on multi-family (attached) housing.
I just upgraded the electric service in my kitchen (okay, my BIL did the work assisted by my 16YO son) and I had to get a permit from the appropriate governmental building authority (around $70) and two inspections (a rough inspection with all the wires in and a final inspection with the GFCIs and everything else all done) to make sure that the work was done to current building and safety code requirements. It was no problem to do this on my own home.
Possibly time to abolish these permits and inspections, firstly they cost the home improver uneccasary money, also they are probably a waste of time as a lot of people who dont do the work to safe standards would simply not bother getting a permit and an inspection.
In other countries like Great Britain that does not have this permit/inspection system I dont notice any more safety issues with unsafe wiring than I do in the US.
If someone just barely knows what they are doing, $20 for a permit gets him a lot of help from an expert consultant.
Every once in a while though, getting the permit and inspections works against doing the job right. When I had a garage built last November, I wanted to drive the ground rod under where the slab would be, and clamp a #4 copper wire to both the ground rod and the nearest 1/2" rebar. But I couldn't schedule to do it and have it inspected because the concrete guys set up the forms and rebar one day and poured early the next morning. I coulda done it anyway, but the inspector wouldn't have passed it because he never saw the work before it was buried under the concrete.
Overall I think it's a good system. You work on getting it abolished in your local jurisdiction and leave the rest of us alone.
In most places in the US, a homeowner can do his own home improvements, and can be issued home improvement building permits. It is unusual for a homeowner to be bothered in any way for making repairs, competent or not, except in wealthy areas or where the homeowners' association has too much authority. Where there is a permit, there is usually an inspection. The value of having an inspection varies greatly from one jurisdiction to another. There is no examination given to prove competency for a homeowner, as there is for a contractor.
Repairs that violate the building codes often catch up with the homeowner when the property is sold, or in the event of an insurance claim, making it highly advisable to strictly follow the electrical, plumbing, or other building codes. If you don't know these codes, there are some very good books for amateurs.
Repairs that affect the neighborhood, such as fence building over a certain height, or addition of a second story, will attract attention, and possibly lawsuits. Obviously, it would be foolhardy to proceed with such a project without a permit.
In some localities, the authorities patrol the area looking for obvious construction jobs, such as roof and driveway repair, and "granny unit" construction, being done without a permit. In my area, this is done to promote collection of overpriced building permit fees, and to satisfy the "no growth" constituency, as well as for enforcement of the building codes.
In short, for anything major, get a permit and discuss your project with the permit authorities. You might be required to submit a plan drawing, or at least a description. For minor stuff, like replacing plumbing fixtures and electrical equipment, you can probably just proceed, but I recommend a phone call to the permit office to discuss it.
You could very well be right, but it will never go away anytime soon. The town keeps the money they collect for so called permits, so essentially it is another tax that they would fight tooth and nail to keep.
On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 23:52:07 GMT, Anthony Straight scribbled this interesting note:
Usually being the operative word. Around here some towns and cities require permits for any significant roofing you may wish to have done. None, absolutely none of these municipalities inspect the work for which they have required a permit. That begins to seem like bribery to me.
-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)
That is true. All they do here is make sure that you have done the work safely and to code (and the building department has lots of handouts on what to do and also gives advice freely to the homeowner who does their own work)
My city says that their rule of thumb is that if you are doing anything that involves electrical or plumbing systems or changing the structure of the house, then you should probably check to see if you need a permit. But this is a relatively affluent community compared to many parts of the country. Nevertheless, people do things like put in new showers in without making sure that the sides are watertight and then the wall disintegrates or makes damp wood that attracts termites, etc.
-- which is why they have the regs in the first place.
On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 21:05:00 -0500, Minnie Bannister scribbled this interesting note:
Be that as it may, but if a city is going to require a contractor to obtain a permit in the course of his work, then they ought to be required to have enough inspectors on hand to perform appropriate inspections. The main reason to require a permit in the first place is to maintain a certain standard in the work performed. (The real reason, as we all know, has to do with money...) If there is no need for an inspection then there ought to be no need for a permit in the first place.
-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)
And if you have increased the property value significantly, you should have this done. When we bought this particular one home, we put several thousand into it, and being a contractor, and believing in the permit system this county uses, we hoped that we would get a significant tax increase...and thus, property value increase. We did. We sold and loved it. The home we are in now....same thing. Value more than doubled. I have no problem with the system, and of course, seeing the DIY screwups in the course of a day like we do...there is good reason this state will not allow a homeowner to do many things.
I've just had several significant repairs done to my home that required inspections. In all cases, new roof, furnace, water heaters, structural changes, and plumbing repairs, the inspectors failed to cite significant flaws until I called and had them return to do what they were paid to do. I was then easily able to force the contractors to properly remedy their mistakes. I feel that building inspection serves several purposes:
It provides assessors with an easy way to know which homes to increases assessments on.
It provides a revenue stream in the form of permit fees (a tax).
It provides employment for inspectors who otherwise are unemployable.
I hope so, that is the way the system is designed to work. Your tax is based on the value, you increase the value you increase the tax. If your tax did not go up, everyone else's tax will go up to make up the difference.
Around here they do check from time to time for un-permitted improvements. Not often, but it does happen. It can result in back taxes with penalty, and they can require that the "improvements" be removed. Most often this happens at the time of sale, but it can happen at other times, but that is rare.
I might add that when you go to sell your home, you WANT the assessed value high, as that is often used by perspective buyers to help them determine what they are willing to pay.
Building permits do two things. They do offer some protection of the homeowner in that if the code is followed, it should be safe construction. It has nothing to do whtthe reputation of the contractor though.
They also generate income. At times they take your money for the permit but no one ever inspects anything. If major changes are made, your assessment will be increased. This ia actually fair. If your neighbor adds a $100,00 addition, do you want to pay the same taxes as he does?
Codes also require certain operations be done by trained and qualified personnel. We allknow that people do things anyway, but that is not always a good thing. I've been in houses, that used lamp cord to wire recepticals in a basement that was going to be finished as a rec room.
In a perfect world, we'd not need permits and codes, but too many morons do dangerous things with gas and electric.
I once smelt gas in a house and it came from a gas hob that had been connected to the gas supply by a garden hose and 2 jubille clips.
However I have also seen professionals make mistakes. Once from an electrician supplied by the electric company who reversed the live (I think that Americans call it hot) and the neutral to the consumer board (Fuse unit) and registered gas installers who fail to carry out the correct pressure testing of a new gas installation, I had to point out to him that he had failed to do it and his attitude towards me was that of a troublemaker.
Difference of what? The improvement itself doesn't raise the costs for the township, unless we're discussing an increase to the number of dwellings on the same property, in which case one could argue that there's an increase in township-provided services. Otherwise, there're no additional financial burdens on the community after the improvement than there were before.
One could argue that sewage and water usage increase when a new wing is added to a home, but that is best handled by sewage and water fees, just like any other utility fee.
The licensing fees (plus some local taxes, fines, etc.) is applied to pay for the inspections and enforcing the code, which benefits the community (including the homeowner and future residents of the property).
On the other hand, shoddy workmanship can cost the township money if it results in fires or injuries that require township resources to control (fire-department, police, EMT/rescue services, etc.)
All that goes out the window if paying off the inspector is considered part of the process. :-( (please pardon my Monday-morning cynicism.)
No, but the total cost of local services has to be allocated to all the property. If properties other than yours are undervalued, then you end up paying a bigger part of the whole, which means your taxes are higher, because theirs are lower. That is unless you believe in things like perpetual motion machines.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.