Got a call from a rather upset lady. The inspector was at a neighbor's house doing an electrical inspection and noticed her mother's house had 2 meters. He went over and questioned her about the "new" meter on her garage. She told him that 2 years ago when they had the garage built on to the house the builder told her she needed another service for the garage as the house panel was full. So the builder(not an electrician)slapped on a meterbase and risor and put in a 100A used panel. The inspector told her she had 60 days to remove one of the services. She called me to come and look over the whole mess and give her an estimate to fix it. I checked with the building department and a permit was issued for this work and it had been inspected and approved for the utility to energize. The house is small and has all gas appliances and no 240V circuits. I suggested she remove the old meter and sub feed the old 8 circuit 100A panel from the newer 12 circuit panel with 4 wire SE-R cable. Her complaint is that she went through proper permit steps and got approval once, why should she have to pay to do it over? I told her the inspector is correct, that the installation is in violation now and was 2 years ago when it was done. The inspector who approved it goofed. She doesn't think she should have to change ior at least not have to pay to have it changed since it was inspected and approved. I told her to get a lawyer and call me back when someone agrees(in writing) to pay me to fix it.

Fred,
why on God's green earth should this little o'ol lady pitch for ANY legal recourse?

She should be slappin' the Mayors face with those old permits demanding a 230.2(C)(3) " By Special Permission" letter.



[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 11-07-2001).]

She needs to find out who's who at the building dept. and raise Cain in writing with the people above both these inspectors.
She's right, she payed once, and they dropped the ball! She should demand results, and be an absolute pest until she gets them.
She could probably rewire the whole place for the price she'd have to pay an attorney.
Maybe the inspector still works there?
(And get that stupid builder into it too)

Pardon my ignorance again...

Background: My house has a "twin" meter base, it was once seperated with the water heater on its own service. Two meters were common here when the PoCo had to compete with the Natural Gas Co and let one put the WH on its own meter at a reduced rate...

Or... Say I wanted a seperate service in my garage for a variety of reasons, big tools, small business at home, etc.

I'm just lost on the "No multiple" services thing...

I just read 230.2(C)(3), so Steve's Q applies here... Might I add, didn't she already have "special permission" by the first AHJ?

[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 11-07-2001).]

Is this a private Inspection agency, or a local Gov't official?

I would seriously consider taking the entire story to the press if it happened to me, parading this level of incompetence publicly would have it's own results. Have her e-mail me the names & dates, i'll write her a scorcher that'll have the Mayor's ph ringin'

a Fauttwau on him.....

It's the city inspector. I suspect the deputy inspector originally approved it. The contractor who did the garage job is no longer in business. I don't know what this lady is going to do. She was hoping for sympathy from me. She wanted me to run around and resolve it or fix it for nothing. I haven't heard back from her one way or the other.

Fred,
it's probably on it's way to the 'oops' file where all officials will play 'ostrich' on it until she puts the place on the market...