New World Order

[reallylongnickname]

In the past, anyone could get a building permit on their home and do what ever work including electrical work they wanted. Then an inspector would pass or fail it. Ive been hearing that under new proposed laws, u must have a licensed electrician do your electrical work. Im looking 4 more info on this. Anyway what is next, You must have a licenced mechanic do your repairs or insurance will not cover u? I see it coming. "Resistance is futile." -- The Borg.

[JimE]

Are you refering to city, county, state or federal law? Where are you located? May be time to sell and relocate.

A coworker looking to buy a new spa(hot tub), does all the trenching for his electric for putting in a 50 amp box off his main box. Being not that comfortable with his abilities around electricity he calls a licensed electrician. Just to run the lines (4) through installed conduit and make the connections with all the boxes installed is 700. Jim

[cowboy]

Here in Texas we dug the trench & set the pole & ran all the wires to my bro-in -law house called the power co & they came looked & ran there wire's from main pole to our meter , & that was about a year & half ago

[scoutski]

Here in Tx if you live outside the city limits you can do everything except the septic system and digging a well. The county controls all of the permits for the wells and septics.
Bill

[MountainMoparRobin]

Did you guys know that there is a new federal law that says if you own property in an area where the city thinks a Mall etc. etc. would better the city they can take your land? It past in October of 05, so after paying good money for your place the local governments can take your home sounds like a fued to me

[scoutski]

They do pay you a fair and reasonable price. For whatever that is worth! Sad but true iminant domain has been around a long time.

[moparbay]

This is horsesh%@. The only person who should determine if and when to sell property is the owner/owner representative. This just goes to show you that our elected officals care more about money/power than their constituents (I might have spelled that wrong). Some people just have too much power. Can you hear it??? Its our founding fathers turning in their graves.

[PwrWgnDrvr]

Well. the FACTS are that the US Supreme Court recently ruled that a city may condemn your property thru eminent domain laws, paying u what they feel it is worth, (subject to a court trial if u contest their offer), then resell your property to a developer that may be planning a shopping mall, or some other biz venture.
There was a big hubbub after this ruling by many legislative bodies, at the state and local level, to pass laws prohibiting such a use of ED, due to the outcry by private citizens over the concept.
Havent heard that any of these proposed laws have been passed. Cities using ED in this manner are few and far between.
Im not too worried about it. Its wrong, its bullshit, but its not happening to any great extent.

[RussRoth]

They do pay you a fair and reasonable price. For whatever that is worth! Sad but true iminant domain has been around a long time.

It has been around a long time. In 1950 Multnomah county, OR threatened my Dad and Grandad with that if they did not sell them 4 acres to build a bridge to Sauvies Island where we lived. It was for the benefit of the Island residents. Prior to that we had to ride a ferry to get to Portland. Not sure the bridge was such a great benefit since every summer weekend there was (is) a large backup of cars going home from the beaches on the Columbia river side. Dad said they never paid close to what it was worth.

[Gilesie]

In the past, anyone could get a building permit on their home and do what ever work including electrical work they wanted. Then an inspector would pass or fail it. Ive been hearing that under new proposed laws, u must have a licensed electrician do your electrical work. Im looking 4 more info on this. Anyway what is next, You must have a licenced mechanic do your repairs or insurance will not cover u? I see it coming. "Resistance is futile." -- The Borg.

Over here you must be a licenced electrician to do any electrical work(with some minor exceptions which require you to have the appropriate permit(schooling)).

As an electrician by trade I must say that it is a good thing as I have seen some downright dangerous do it yourself jobs.
A good example is useing 1 amp wire to do a 10 amp job or cables coiled up causing a hot spot.
What you have to remember is that there are a lot of people who just dont know what damage that they can cause by not following the correct procedures, now dont get me wrong I am not saying everybody would stuff it up, but I am sure that we all know somebody who believes that there work cant be faulted where everyone else can see that it is substandard.

Now the problem with the few that will do substandard work is that they can kill people.

Most inspections (in Australia) do not include the inspector crawling through roofs or under floors to see if everything is 100%.

[reallylongnickname]

The whole idea of this government control is a make work project and not safety. Safety is the scape-goat. The poor wiring you have discovered would be people doing work without permits. Some contractors ask clients not to apply for permits (it`s illegal) and in turn the contractor will reduce the project price. This allows the contractor to cut corners because he doesn`t have to build to code, saving him $ while putting lives at risk. No electrical could be hidden from the inspector because he wasn`t there during some phase of a the project as you proposed in your statement. "Most inspections (in Australia) do not include the inspector crawling through roofs or under floors to see if everything is 100%." The inspector can have the entire project taken apart if he believes some work is hidden. I doubt that Aussy laws differy greatly from North America. Back to the begining the idea is multi million dollar make-work projects by government.

[scoutski]

About 3 years ago I heard that the new I69 "Canada to Mexico hiway would be going right thru Nacogdoches on or near SH59. I went to a meeting where the proposed routes were mapped out. Well my place was right in one of the proposed routes. Since then I have resigned myself to the fact that if and when it happens, well thats life. So far the funding has run out and it's priority is not being stressed. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it never gets additional funding.
Bill

[Gilesie]

The poor wiring you have discovered would be people doing work without permits.

No permit in Australia will allow any body to do any electrical work on low voltage and up (100 volts plus).

The permits I refer to are electrical authority approved and involve a relavent course in wich you obtain a licence for.

For example an "S" permit may be for a plumber to wire up an electric hot water unit so that he does not have the added expence of calling an electrician to do such a simple task, this permit however does not allow him to run the cables.

Some contractors ask clients not to apply for permits (it`s illegal) and in turn the contractor will reduce the project price. This allows the contractor to cut corners because he doesn`t have to build to code,

This sounds more like a valid reason for the changes that you describe.

As I said it only takes a few to stuff it up for everybody else.

And yes you are correct there are a lot of dodgey electricians out there too. I made one bloke repair his job twice and told him if I found that it was not rectified that I would report him to the Chief electrical inspector. (The electrician God over here).