Should the amount of red tags a contractor recieves be available as public information?

Why/Why not?


Dnk..

I will put my consumer hat on:
Absolutely! I want to know if the contractor that I will be hiring has had violations on other projects.

With my professional hat on:
No! An over aggressive AHJ may ruin my reputation because of a personal problem, or his own error. Sometimes it isn't worth appealing a red tag because of the resulting headache.
Also, If I do a lot of projects, I'm more likely to have more (quantity) red tags than my competitor that does less projects. It's a ratio thing.

There was recently the same discussion recently in my area about Doctors and Malpractice case information given to the public.

Guys:
To the best of my knowledge, please note the following regarding NJ:

Electrical Permits, and ALL other permit apps, and supporting documentation are considered "Public REcords", and are available for review by anybody. Procedure is that a RFPI/RFPR form be filled out, and the interested person will receive either a call or letter when the documents are available. (Depends on the age of the requested items, and how 'busy' the Twp is)

Therefore violation (fail) dates are visable on the front under insp. results, and ANY notes that the inspector writes on the back of the card are also "available".

As to the 'number' of fails (red stickers) any EC gets, well.....I know of no one who keeps a written tally, nor any way to obtain that info from the Computer System.

As to how many I write, basically...if it's deserved, it's written.

I'll have to ask a few EC's in my area how many they got!

As to my EC business, I've gotten a few over the years; some stupid, some deserved, a few that were 100% off the wall.

John

And that's just it. A homeowner who wants to know more about his/ her contracter does not know what a violation of article 250.66 means. To the customer, all he/ she knows is that you failed no matter what the violation and that's the bottom line. I think it's ok for your customers to know your record, but a brief explanation of the violation should also be mentioned.

just my $0.02

To me, a failed inspection is merely a test run.

I wouldn't mind violations as public record. In all fairness we could have a public record for inspectors that make mistakes in writing red tags.

In the end, we all make mistakes. What defines us is how we fix our mistakes. I think a better guage of a contractor is asking for and checking references and checking the Better Business Bureau.

Dave