No Fix No Pay!

Published-forum dialog occurs between tradepersons, inspectors, engineers, licensed builders, suppliers, building officials, union recruiters, organizers, and other building-industry members. The extraordinary and common trade practices described on these forums are not always read nor checked by each participating member.

The forum links below show entire discussions where the user "ramsy" contributed a comment. Readers can see my comments ranging from local & State laws, building codes and engineering, to criticism of industry practice. My recent comments discribe why apprentices are still being recruited during a recession, and how they are exploited by false represention of livelihood, then dumped overboard to depend on State unemployment systems.

For the strictly moderated forums, members are periodically suspended or banned for mysterious reasons. Participation is best described as transient. While some trade-groups still manage to evangalize their own intrest, other well ajusted experts don't volunteer their trade knowledge without proper provocation. Unfortunately, the most usefull information must be provoked, but is also the first to get deleted.

The popular trade forum below is represented by its share of contractors, layed-off Union workers, unlicensed side workers, home-owners, and Do It Yourselfers (DIY), which repeatedly ask similar questions to armchair building officials, inspectors, engineers, instructors, and legal councel. Some of these armchair experts can be helpful, but there also exists a real danger in avoiding skilled professionals, avoiding permits and locally adopted codes, or avoiding inspection by the local Authority having jurisdiction.

Across all the forums, networking with forum membership to locate replacement equipment, no longer manufactured, has been most useful to me. Some commercial-property owners are also seen canvasing for contractors & engineers in their area. Members can be seen networking their tallent, and offering their contractor's license for rent or RMO. However, the majority of correspondence is not illicitly conducted in public forum topics, but thru private messeges sent between user mailboxes, which are assigned as part of forum membership.

The largest contractor associations and building-trade recruiters, merit shop (see www.abc.org) and Union (see www.helmetstohardhats.com) recruit & train temporary labor pools to sit on wait lists between projects, sustained by State unemployment. This variable employment inevitably drives these desperate, unemployed workers into unlicensed residential side work.

California categorizes these weekend warriors without a contractor license as handymen, declares them limited to projects under $500, but has no mechanism to track cash earnings or resale tax from home owners, nor enforce skills-certifications, much less force owner-builder permits or inspections.

Exposure to Liability

If fire investigators found fuel residues on your burned-down property, arson would be suspected. Similarly, if property damage or bodily injury resulted from proven electrical-wiring negligence, which was not pre-existing, to the extent property insurance carriers’ use this evidence to avoid claims your fire-insurance / claim could be denied.

While every criminal contractor, handyman, and owner/builder avoids permits, legitimate operators encourage owners to cover their assets with permits, city inspections, and proper insurance policies during construction.

Legitimate operators aren't afraid of inspections if they use properly listed equipment, and comply with building codes designed to avoid burning down the building. Beyond simple device replacements, owner permits and inspecion should follow any electrical wiring.

Repairs without permit are usually caught during 1) accidents 2) when disgruntled tenants, neighbors, or other observers report your construction to the city, or 3) during property sales, when obvious additions or negligence --not recorded by municipal permit-- are caught by local inspectors hired by the new buyers/mortgage-insurance company.

Getting caught usually means expensive plan reviews and nit-picking inspections by the building department, but no punitive fines.