Building Inspector - rant

[DeeVeeEight]

I live in NJ where every home improvement contractor from the carpet cleaner to the roofer has to be licensed to work on a home (excepting his own). It costs me good money to be licensed and insured and to stay legal just so I can earn an honest living.
A few months back I keep seeing a truck with New York tags going down my street with loads of lumber so I inquire (discreetly) and find out that the guy is from out of state and is unlicensed, so I call my local borough zoning, construction and inspections office and inform them of the situation. Don't you know that the zoning officer starts making excuses for the out of state contractor being there and starts treating ME like I AM THE ONE who is breaking the law?!?!? WTF??? The economy is bad enough and work is scarce enough that I don't need unfair competition in my town. You would also think that the local zoning and inspections people would be VERY INTERESTED in illegal/unlicensed work being performed in their jurisdiction. I guess I am wrong!:hissyfit:

End rant.

Thanks.

 

[Jsup]

I live in NJ where every home improvement contractor from the carpet cleaner to the roofer has to be licensed to work on a home (excepting his own). It costs me good money to be licensed and insured and to stay legal just so I can earn an honest living.
A few months back I keep seeing a truck with New York tags going down my street with loads of lumber so I inquire (discreetly) and find out that the guy is from out of state and is unlicensed, so I call my local borough zoning, construction and inspections office and inform them of the situation. Don't you know that the zoning officer starts making excuses for the out of state contractor being there and starts treating ME like I AM THE ONE who is breaking the law?!?!? WTF??? The economy is bad enough and work is scarce enough that I don't need unfair competition in my town. You would also think that the local zoning and inspections people would be VERY INTERESTED in illegal/unlicensed work being performed in their jurisdiction. I guess I am wrong!:hissyfit:

End rant.

Thanks.

Take pictures, take them to the next council meeting.

I bet the inspector is getting paid off.

Just another lazy assed government bureaucrat who doesn't get off his ass until he needs revenue around raise time.

 

[mrvette]

BET odds he is a illegal or some minority, and therefore can not be touched....

any takers???


:hissyfit:

I gave up my Florida contractors corporation on account of I don't give a shit anymore about ANY .gov too disgusted to deal with the mother fuckers anymore.....:hissyfit:

 

[DeeVeeEight]

BET odds he is a illegal or some minority, and therefore can not be touched....

any takers???


:hissyfit:

I gave up my Florida contractors corporation on account of I don't give a shit anymore about ANY .gov too disgusted to deal with the mother fuckers anymore.....:hissyfit:

Gene, I am not far behind you. Between being audited, taxed and regulated to death and the rest of the situation I am both tired and disgusted of the whole thing.
Any time you ask the gov. to back up their contractors laws you get treated like a POS. I am tired of trying to do the right thing.

I could not understand the inspector making excuses for the out of state guy and trying to deflect my complaint. Something ain't right, but then again, that's politics for you.

 

[mrvette]

DV8 you maybe picked up from an occational read from me....I got old in the Wash DC region....I know poly ticks like back of my hand,

bunch of crooks.....

and someone IS getting paid...bet on that too...

:surrender:

 

[TimAT]

Also try the guys/department that does the occupational license thing- I've been busted for that one- in another life. All they wanted was the $100 fee.

 

[010752]

Complain in writing to the state licensing board, certified mail if need be, they probably must act upon it by law.

 

[mrvette]

Complain in writing to the state licensing board, certified mail if need be, they probably must act upon it by law.

Noonie, don't get me started on anything about what is 'expected' by any LEO or reg agency....white collar crime is not only condoned but encouraged by the 'legal' system....especially here in Florida, right up to the FEDERAL LEVEL in courts....I still have the paperwork supporting my cases and the illegal 'rulings' and evidence of something back door on the FEDERAL LEVEL....

but that's ok.....


some day it will be in the news...maybe....

 

[73 Mike]

You would also think that the local zoning and inspections people would be VERY INTERESTED in illegal/unlicensed work being performed in their jurisdiction. I guess I am wrong!:hissyfit:

End rant.

Thanks.

Maybe he's offering better kickbacks than you are. Years ago (I'm not sure I can count that high any more), I was a "crew chief" on a construction site. That meant I spoke English. Anyways, on my first visit with the building inspector, he was picking our houses to pieces. At lunch, I asked one of the better guys on the crew what the deal was. He asked me if I had the case of Scotch in the guys car yet. I told him I had no idea what I was talking about. He tore me a new one. Long story short, he sent me off to the liquor store and made me buy a case out of my own money and put it in the inspectors car. At the end of the day, all of the houses had passes.

Granted that was in the homeland where alcohol was the currency of choice.

 

[DeeVeeEight]

So it's the nature of the beast, to want to have his weenie waxed because he is not getting enough already. It's another power trip.

 

[mrvette]

You would also think that the local zoning and inspections people would be VERY INTERESTED in illegal/unlicensed work being performed in their jurisdiction. I guess I am wrong!:hissyfit:

End rant.

Thanks.

Maybe he's offering better kickbacks than you are. Years ago (I'm not sure I can count that high any more), I was a "crew chief" on a construction site. That meant I spoke English. Anyways, on my first visit with the building inspector, he was picking our houses to pieces. At lunch, I asked one of the better guys on the crew what the deal was. He asked me if I had the case of Scotch in the guys car yet. I told him I had no idea what I was talking about. He tore me a new one. Long story short, he sent me off to the liquor store and made me buy a case out of my own money and put it in the inspectors car. At the end of the day, all of the houses had passes.

Granted that was in the homeland where alcohol was the currency of choice.

The above, talk about jogging my memory...so help me GOD, this is true....


Major rebuild on a kitchen in a huge wing of about 24?x32 on a Potomac Md, mansion...the entire first floor of that house wing...that size....freeking HUGE second story above, consisting of a bath and 3 bedrooms and a hall way...basement under, with a steel beam and two lolly's into the floor....nothing unusual....


so upon gutting this floor, I find two 2x12's for a beam, ONE FIR the other pine, and the joists just toe nailed into them...no hangers....one end of this overloaded beam was held by a double headered wall, with the closest stud about 8" away...bowed like 2" worth....the other end was a custom cut temporary lone 2x4 stud setting on the basement steel beam....

SO, to fix all that, the home owner was quoted some ten grand, jacks, and all the tear out to replace everything associated with that beam and redo the joists to it properly....talk about a time waster....figger 4 guys and maybe a week, it was THAT bad....and then I wanted a engineer/arky tech to look at it first...included....the upstairs had sagged the floors from the baseboards SO bad that a pencil would roll across the floors....the gap was stupid...

so anyway, the inspector comes in to look at the close in....I stand there with my arms folded looking out the front window...not seeing a damn thing....Monkey County Maryland housing office guy I recognized, but not knew....looks at that framing....'that's not YOU is it'?? I say NO, no way man....he looks at some paperwork, sees a sig line on some old form, and sighs......looks out the same front window, and says...'here is your close in' as he scribbles something I hang on the window....

I was NEVER so glad to exit a structure in my LIFE.....

the owners knew the whole damn thing....the house sold some 25? years ago for some 1.5 MILLION BUX.....

I shit you NOT....

:flash::bonkers: