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#19529 12/29/02 11:36 AM
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 15
A
AMP Offline OP
Member
I have been a General Contractor for a few years and I'm taking my Electrician's exam in January. Hope I pass [Linked Image]

What really gets me going is landlords.
I have dealt with many of them in the past on remodeling jobs. They want you to come in to their rentals and half-ass everything because they only want to spend a dollar or two while the tenant has to pay rent for a place that is falling apart.
I have told landlords "I will only do the work if I can fix things right". They still say "Well, we don't need to call a plumber do we?" Can't you do the work?" or "Just buy the cheapest materials". I hate this!!!
If they would do it right the first time and spend a little extra $ then they wouldn't need to call someone every year to do the same work over and over. They don't see it this way. They see it like this: spend a little $ now and profits look good.
I have never done any electrical or plumbing work for them (I am not licensed)but I have been asked to on several occasions. They don't understand that Electrician's and Plumber's are licensed because they KNOW what they are doing and will do the job right. I will soon have to deal with landlords as an Electrician and I'm really not looking forward to that.

Just wanted to vent [Linked Image]

#19530 12/29/02 12:11 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,392
S
Member
AMP,
believe me, your in good company....

#19531 12/29/02 12:24 PM
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 267
W
Member
I know the landloards of the city next to me, they only do what the city ordinances tell them to do in order to have spave occupied. When it comes to the trades, they seldom hire licensed professionals. They have a crew of grunts that maintain property, fixing doors and windows, painting etc.. These grunts perform all the electrical, heat, a/c and plumbing work that they feel they can handle. For the things they can't handle a licensed person is called in. I saw hundreds of installations that would fill up this forum of violations. Fires waiting to happen. Just this one landloard back in the 80s had 50 buildings, with an average of 4 units per complex. That averages out to 200 units x 4 people per unit of a total average of 800 people. They are only intersted in cash flow, they buy and sell properties and rent to section 8. They're slum lords. The people who rent to them can't qualify for a nice place, they have no or their credit lines are in bad shape. So they're stuck in these dumps. Most of them live like slobs and wouldn't know the difference between done right and violations. I feel sorry for the people in these places. City only inspects for a guideline of safety issues. They don't get into all the wiring and plumbing. I agree with you, if the landlord just fixed these places up right, they wouldn't have a need for constant repair.

#19532 12/29/02 12:35 PM
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 210
S
Member
Wirenutt,

I have even heard of landlords somehow getting a licensed electrician to pull the permit and then having their grunts do the work. Whats the matter with these people?

#19533 12/29/02 05:15 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,392
S
Member
spyder,
they're insane. the grunts will point out all the bad news that they have done as being that licenses installation.

this is why i don't advertise my #'s....

oh i'm reminded of one slum, Wirenuttt took me there on a serv call....you know that double sided sticky tape, the clear type?

well the resident had put this horizontally bettween the kitchen counter & cabinets....

it was chock full of roaches..... [Linked Image]

and then there was the cat sized rat rumored to have been seen in the drop cieling....


The thing is, these places are so bad that the powers that be simply focus on fire detection, maybe GFI's.....then hope the conflaguration is containable.

[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 12-29-2002).]

#19534 12/29/02 07:16 PM
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 267
W
Member
Sparky;
That same place I was called in to add an outlet in the baby's room. I had to move the crib out of the way to acsess this wall. The baby's mother was more than a slob, she was straight out stupid. She had electric baseboard heat which was located just under the baby's crib, it was all covered up with baby clothes and blankets. I couldn't believe it. I laid into that mother, told her it was just a matter of time before all that would have caught on fire and you would have lost that baby. She just looked at me. I told the landlord about it. What I should have done was call in social services.

#19535 12/29/02 07:24 PM
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 267
W
Member
spyder;
I had an incident where I was called in to estimate on a small restaurant. The guy had the paper work in his hand with 5 grunts standing by asking me to just fill out the application for a permit. I said, no, I'm not signing that till you sign my proposal, he asked me again, I looked at him and said, your not gonna use my license to do this work and don't try using my numbers, I know the inspector in this town, if I find out you used my license, I'll have everyone down on this building like a pile of bricks. I just walked away. My first intuition when I first met these people I should have went with. They kept complaining about cost, first sign to say, too busy, c u later.

#19536 12/29/02 07:52 PM
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,716
R
Member
Wirenutt, you should have called SS, but you probably would have been more frustrated after the call.

Years ago I worked for a contractor who wrote a disclaimer into his final bill, that he would not warranty the install due to the work the owner had said he was going to do after we left.

Roger

#19537 01/01/03 11:41 AM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
P
Member
It's the same here in England. You might like to take a look at this thread from a few months back:
https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001139.html

The landlord in this escapade apparently owns not only the shop in question, but also some prime real estate in the nearest big city, so he's not exactly hard up.


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