okay, so here's the story.
Back in march 2006 we got a grant from "housing revitalization" for some much needed repairs to our house. The total grant was about 20k, including windows, doors, roof, electrical, etc.
The electrical is where we ran into big problems. The specs were spelled out and work began. We signed off on the project in oct 2007. By signed off, i mean that we agreed the work was "completed", weather it was done right or not. If it wasnt, we had to take it up with the contractor, who had to guarentee EVERYTHING for 1 year. At the time, I was just barely learning a little about electrical work, so I didnt know any better when I was watching the guy work.
Flash forward to Feb 2007, and I was talking to an electrician friend about junction boxes. He made it very clear to me that under no circumstances can you put a j-box behind drywall, or anywhere else that is not accessable. Then I remembered this guy using at least 2 of them behind sheetrock.
I decided to call an independant electrical inspector to go over our house. I knew that there would be some stuff that this guy didn't work on that might have to be fixed by me, and I was okay with that. The inspector walked out with 6 pages of violations. Some were minor (stapling, boxes not flush with drywall, etc) to major (weatherhead BELOW point of attachment, main panel too far from point of entry into house, etc).
I notified the contractor, as well as sending a copy to Housing Revitilization. The next few weeks was alot of arguing with both the contractor and H.R. about who was respolsible for what. The contractor worked a few days here and there and got the major issues out of the way first, like moving the main panel and extenging all the ccts, weatherhead, etc. Then he stopped showing up, and couldnt be reached for weeks at a time. When I would get ahold of him, he would come work for 2 hours here and there.
I met with a lawyer when all this first started, and basiclly what he told me was I had to give the guy a chance to make good on his work. The only way I could take any other action (insurance company, small claims, etc) was if he flat out refused to correct the work.
2 weeks ago, I tried calling him and his phone was disconnected. I got back in touch with the laywer I had spoken with and he recommended that I send a certified letter explaining that he had 10 days to communicate with us, and 30 days to complete the work and have it inspected and passed, otherwise we would file a claim with his insurance company.
Now I know some are going to ask about origional inspection... there was none. Well, technically there was, but it was only for the service entrance. None of the interior wiring was ever inspected. The guy who runs the grant program said that was an oversight on his part for not making sure the inspection was turned in before paying, but that still didnt have an effect on their involvment and it was still between myself and the contractor.
here are my questions:
can i legally file a claim with his ins if he doesnt contact me or complete the work in 30 days?
for wiring behind sheetrock that was never inspected, is he responsible for the repair of the sheetrock after it has to be torn out to be inspected? there is one room that HE did electrical, but I sheetrocked (and yes, he did tell me it was okay to close up because inspection had been done) and 3 other rooms that he sheetrocked and did electrical.
when we origionally called in the ind. inspector, he had to pass his findings on to the town code officer, who in turn handed us a violation for the electrical issues. it was a "fix imediate" order. Since then, he has been cool about giving us some slack, but now is saying if it is not finished in 30 days we will start recieving fines. if we do get a fine, can we hold the contractor responsible for paying it?
Back in march 2006 we got a grant from "housing revitalization" for some much needed repairs to our house. The total grant was about 20k, including windows, doors, roof, electrical, etc.
The electrical is where we ran into big problems. The specs were spelled out and work began. We signed off on the project in oct 2007. By signed off, i mean that we agreed the work was "completed", weather it was done right or not. If it wasnt, we had to take it up with the contractor, who had to guarentee EVERYTHING for 1 year. At the time, I was just barely learning a little about electrical work, so I didnt know any better when I was watching the guy work.
Flash forward to Feb 2007, and I was talking to an electrician friend about junction boxes. He made it very clear to me that under no circumstances can you put a j-box behind drywall, or anywhere else that is not accessable. Then I remembered this guy using at least 2 of them behind sheetrock.
I decided to call an independant electrical inspector to go over our house. I knew that there would be some stuff that this guy didn't work on that might have to be fixed by me, and I was okay with that. The inspector walked out with 6 pages of violations. Some were minor (stapling, boxes not flush with drywall, etc) to major (weatherhead BELOW point of attachment, main panel too far from point of entry into house, etc).
I notified the contractor, as well as sending a copy to Housing Revitilization. The next few weeks was alot of arguing with both the contractor and H.R. about who was respolsible for what. The contractor worked a few days here and there and got the major issues out of the way first, like moving the main panel and extenging all the ccts, weatherhead, etc. Then he stopped showing up, and couldnt be reached for weeks at a time. When I would get ahold of him, he would come work for 2 hours here and there.
I met with a lawyer when all this first started, and basiclly what he told me was I had to give the guy a chance to make good on his work. The only way I could take any other action (insurance company, small claims, etc) was if he flat out refused to correct the work.
2 weeks ago, I tried calling him and his phone was disconnected. I got back in touch with the laywer I had spoken with and he recommended that I send a certified letter explaining that he had 10 days to communicate with us, and 30 days to complete the work and have it inspected and passed, otherwise we would file a claim with his insurance company.
Now I know some are going to ask about origional inspection... there was none. Well, technically there was, but it was only for the service entrance. None of the interior wiring was ever inspected. The guy who runs the grant program said that was an oversight on his part for not making sure the inspection was turned in before paying, but that still didnt have an effect on their involvment and it was still between myself and the contractor.
here are my questions:
can i legally file a claim with his ins if he doesnt contact me or complete the work in 30 days?
for wiring behind sheetrock that was never inspected, is he responsible for the repair of the sheetrock after it has to be torn out to be inspected? there is one room that HE did electrical, but I sheetrocked (and yes, he did tell me it was okay to close up because inspection had been done) and 3 other rooms that he sheetrocked and did electrical.
when we origionally called in the ind. inspector, he had to pass his findings on to the town code officer, who in turn handed us a violation for the electrical issues. it was a "fix imediate" order. Since then, he has been cool about giving us some slack, but now is saying if it is not finished in 30 days we will start recieving fines. if we do get a fine, can we hold the contractor responsible for paying it?