Hi guys,

I am not an electrician, but as new home owner got a lot of help by reading this forum.
Please help me with this. I hired electrician to separate light fixture from fan. After job was done, I decided to replace switch with timer and discover:
I have 2 cond. wire and two switches. Now hot wire (black) through switch goes to lamp, white wire is marked as hot now and through switch goes to fan. Ground wire connected to switches at grounding screws and I assume (I will check tonight) is used as neutral and as ground in light fixture and fan.
Is it against of NEC or not?
Thank you all in advance.
Alex

Call another electrician. That sounds wrong.

That's hack work -- and not correct.

Get another electrician.

Thank you guys,
Do you know what paragraph in NEC does it violate?

Fox, there are many sections that are violated. It's like bad grammar .... you have to know the language before you start parsing sentences.

First off, there's basic vocabulary. Grounds are grounds, and nutrals are neutrals, and never the twain shall meet (at least, never after the main disconnect.)

Code forbids 'objectionable' current over the ground wire.

Code required grounds to be green, or bare - and neutrals to be white. Code does not allow these colors to be changed with a scrap of tape either. Neutrals are also required to be insulated- and the ground wire in household cable is generally not insulated.

Here's what you have: you have the result of a cheap-skate who ignored good design at the time of the original install- opting to run the code minimum for the required light. I'll bet that ceiling box isn't supported to hold a fan, either.

The poor planning was then compounded by some handy-dandy who figured out a way to 'make it work' without needing to replace the cable. Understandable- who wants the job to take all day, and rip open walls or crawl attics if they can avoid it?

Ironically, you could have avoided this by spending another $20 at the box store for a wireless remote for the fan - though that still doesn't address the question of supporting the box.

I suggest first making sure the box is supported well enough that you can swing from it- unless you like sleeping in body armor.

This makes the enclosures part of the current carrying system. Interruptions in the bonding wire can create electrocution hazards. I don't know the NEC code rule but I know the work was done by a hack and I am being polite.
I know this is not an incorrect way to describe the work but the bare wire in the cable is NOT a Ground wire in NEC speak it is an equipment ground isn't it? We call it a bond wire and current is not intended to flow on a bond or ground wire except under abnormal conditions like a short circuit.

I know I am late on this I have been on the road and I didn't have my NEC on Mike's old laptop

A few things to chew on

Article 100 Definitions kinda says it all.
Grounding conductor
Grounded conductor