Thread: Neighbor house burned 6AM

A three unit on a lot a few doors down burned this winter as around 6AM. The tenants luckily awoke and the fire department was only one block away. We kept their kids warm in our house while things were being dealt with.

1. This house had been sold several times. No permits pulled on any work by any owner.
2. The house was short sold at least once.
3. The new owner did major work with NO permits.
4. Within 15 minutes it was determied to be an electrical fire.
5. The fire was near a heater that was newly installed
6. fairly extensive electrical work and other work including windows roofing, plumbing etc had been performed wihtout permit.

I asked for the fire inspector or marshal that was to investigate. I told him what I knew of the work done, non permitted possibly over several owners but for sure much by this owner.

The occupancy permit was immediately pulled after initial review and date code stamps on wires etc were found.

All tenants were gone within ONE day.

The property has been vacant for months and all electrical meters have been pulled. The property is being worked on, but I can NOT find a damn permit posted if you can beleive that!!!

Guys, if you see such things and then see a fire or other disaster due to unpermitted work, please report it to the proper authority.

Dont get me wrong, I have been known to add a circuit…or replumb lines or even put a new shower pan in without a permit…but for a lanlord to completely redo a triplex without permits and without quailified workers is insane…the kids could have died, it was in thier room that the fire started!

It scares me to death when I see properties with unpermitted, sloppy work. Today's townhouse was one of them. It was being rented to four young men; one of them wanted to buy the property and thought an inspection would be a good idea. There were NO permits on file for the property, yet extensive work had been done to it. One of the guys was sleeping in a basement bedroom with NO windows. I told the client that this was a hazardous arrangement. The basement bathroom had a bare halogen bulb over the shower.The heat pump had no labels on it aside from a fragment of paper that said "Goodman". The tenant said the owner "had a friend who did HVAC" who replaced a motor in the air handler recently. Tenant had no idea he was supposed to change the filter.

I replaced our Goodman heat pump a few years ago--it had slogged along almost 25 years, doing a dependable job of keeping the place reasonably warm (and cool the few times we needed it to cut the summer heat).

I see this all the time. In our county a permit is not required unless the total of the project is $5,000 or more in cost.

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Originally Posted by Jerry Martin

I see this all the time. In our county a permit is not required unless the total of the project is $5,000 or more in cost.

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If the county has adopted the national (now international) codes then that is no longer true as the codes themselve pretty much state that paint and wallpaper….and some floor coverings are excluded. All else pretty much requires a permit. The county may have passed a resolution that less than 5000 none is required…but that makes no sense, a new electrical panel install is less than 5000 and should have a municipal inspection, period!

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Originally Posted by Jerry Martin

I see this all the time. In our county a permit is not required unless the total of the project is $5,000 or more in cost.

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If the county has adopted the national (now international) codes then that is no longer true as the codes themselve pretty much state that paint and wallpaper….and some floor coverings are excluded. All else pretty much requires a permit. The county may have passed a resolution that less than 5000 none is required…but that makes no sense, a new electrical panel install is less than 5000 and should have a municipal inspection, period!

They probably had Rose wire the ranges
Another reason why we on this site should stick to its intention.

I see many conditions that had been installed with a permit but were still wrong. Around here the mini inspections can have the potential of being useless.