ECN Electrical Forum - Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals

>> Home   >> Electrical-Photos   >> Classifieds   >> Subscribe to Newsletter   >> Store  
 

Photo of the Week:

Closet Meters
Meter Closet

Advertisement:-Left
Recent Gallery Topics:
What in Tarnation?
What in Tarnation?
by timmp, September 10
Plumber meets Electrician
Plumber meets Electrician
by timmp, September 10
Who's Online Now
1 members (Scott35), 69 guests, and 33 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
#89107 09/01/04 04:00 PM
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 1
J
jklm51 Offline OP
Junior Member
What are the responsabilities of a licensed electrician to report existing electrical hazards to other authorities? My question is because the building owner has chosen not to act on these problems. Whether we get the contract for the work or not there is a potential for serious life safety issues.
In order to not only protect my company ( we have done work in the facility ) I am concerned with the general public's safety as this is a busy commercial building.
Who and where do I report this to in Pennsylvania/City of Pittsburgh area ?

Horizontal Ad
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 681
P
Member
If you feel this is a life safety issue, report it to the building department and let them handle the rest.

Pierre


Pierre Belarge
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 2,876
E
e57 Offline
Member
So uh, how bad is it?

A few unsupported conduits or every plug is hot ground @ 277?

You got a touchy situation.... Do you ever want to work for the Owner? If not, call your Electrical Inspector.

If so, and you get the contract, put all violations or safety issues you see on a list, with a little letter, saying you recommend these items are taken care of. Give to him, if you do or don't get the contract, you put copy in a file called "CYA". If something happens... "YAIC"

If you got the contract for the work "requiring a permit", during your inspection, that paper from the "CYA" file will be the second thing on your clip-board. During this inspection, don't forget to walk the Inspector through the worst area, on the way to your work, mumbling the words "Fire Hazard" and "Death Trap" to yourself. If he happens to notice one of the items, and HE brings it up to YOU, then you pop out the list. And say, "Well, just so happens I brought that up with SLUM LORD, I mean Mr. Whatevadahecisnamis, and he wasn't interested in doing any of this work yet. Said, it would cost too much... But I think it should be done before some DIES!

"YAIC!"


Sorry I got carried away in the fiction of it, but you get what I mean, right.


Mark Heller
"Well - I oughta....." -Jackie Gleason
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 2,876
E
e57 Offline
Member
Oh, have I done that before? Yep!
http://www.joetedesco.com/nec/viewtopic.php?t=1460


Mark Heller
"Well - I oughta....." -Jackie Gleason
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,393
S
Member
jklm51 (et all)
i've used words like 'fire hazard' and 'death trap' in conversations to the state fire marshal/electrical inspector for years here...

it does no good at all

safety laws, codes, regulations, ordinaces, or whatever form of legalities that superficially lull the public into a false sense of security without the manpower to enforce them become self serving to administrators...

additionally, the fear culture mentality of sheepeople allows this to be cyclical...

~S~

Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,995
Likes: 35
G
Member
I would think you would have more success calling their insurance carrier or legal department. It will always come down to money and when someone looks at the risk vs cost of doing it right they will probably fix it.
People are a lot more afraid of litigation than of government. In fact, when the government really comes after you, they sue you.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,233
H
Member
As an electrical inspector, I am not allowed back into a house unless there is an open permit for a job. No permit I am not allowed back in. If there is a permit, I can't fail you for the job you did. I am not allowed to retrofit the code in my state. I can only point out the fact to the homeowner that there is a major/minor electrical violation and that the homeowner should take care of it. Too many times the homeowner thinks that the contractor is trying to get more work out of the homeowner, when in fact there aren't. What I use to do is list the violations on my bill, this way if anything happened, the homeowner couldn't come back to me and say, "Well you never told me about the problem." I figured that my response to them would be, "Well, you paid me my bill. I fgured that you must have read my bill in order to pay me, so you must have also read that there is a violation in your house." I also would tell homeowners when I saw, termite damage, holes in the roof, or any other damage that I thought the homeowner should know about.

Horizontal Ad
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,393
S
Member
well Harold,
if you worked in Vermont we'd probably see you rarely if at all, one inspector i know is over 12,000 permits in the hole here.

these places have been closed up so long the EC has probably retired

i get calls from them for things i did years ago here

and you want to complain to someone about a hazard ?

~S~


Link Copied to Clipboard
Advertisement:-Right


Tools for Electricians
Tools for Electricians
 

* * * * * * *
2023 National Electrical Code (NEC)
2023 NEC + Exam Prep Study Guides Now Available!
 

Member Spotlight
dougwells
dougwells
kamloops BC Canada
Posts: 1,158
Joined: May 2003
Top Posters(30 Days)
BigB 6
Popular Topics(Views)
329,926 Are you busy
254,756 Re: Forum
237,179 Need opinion
New Page 2
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5