Legal Corner
Knowing The Law

Permits. Why do I need a permit for the work that is going to be performed?

Not all work that a plumber or heating/air conditioning company performs requires a city or state permit. For instance, repairing a leaking pipe by soldering a coupling on it or replacing a motor in a furnace does not require permits. Re-piping the home, replacing the main water service or replacing the furnace does require a permit in nearly all cities. For information on what is required a permit in your city please call the building department in your city. You can find there phone number in the front of the Phone Book White Pages under government listings. There are many reasons that benefit you when a permit is purchased from the city or state. Some of these are as follows:

1. It enables you to comply with the law. It is illegal to build without a building permit. This structure change could represent a problem when the home eventually goes up for sale.
2. It ensures that the contractor is properly licensed to perform the work that they have contracted for. While you, as the building owner can purchase the permit, you will be better served to have the contractor do it. Properly licensed contractors typically higher quality work.
3. It makes sure that the contractor that you have negotiated the work with has workers compensation insurance. If a contractor works for you that does not have workers compensation insurance and has an employee injury on the job, you, as the homeowner, can be made to pay the damages. Workers compensation claims are very costly in this industry. A small cut on the hand or arm that requires 4 stitches can cost over $1000.00 as soon as the doctor finds out it happened on the job. A slight back injury can cost over $20,000. Using only legitimate licensed contractors can aid you in avoiding this problem.
4. It helps to ensure that the job is done correctly according to the manufacturer's installation instructions and code safety requirements. The inspector does not work for the contractor. The inspector is not on the job to make the contractor's job easier. The inspector is on the job to ensure that job get a high quality and safe installation of whatever it is that you are repairing, replacing or building. There is no good reason to forego these safety measures.
5. Permits help to ensure that the warranty of the manufacture stays valid. The majority of problems with plumbing, heating, and air conditioning systems and devices do not have problems because of the manufacture of the products. They have problems due to installation techniques that compromise the ability of the product to function in the way that it was intended. Nearly all warranties specify that the product must be installed in a manner compliant with the installation instructions in order to maintain a valid warranty. The inspection will help to ensure that this is the case.
6. The permit process, if requested at the time of the bidding process, will help maintain a level bidding field with the contractors that are competing against each other. The inspector will not allow "short cuts" to take place. The inspector will require all contractors to install the items in the bid with the same minimum level of safety and expertise. This will let you get a better idea of whose bid for the work is best and the most complete. Many times the unlicensed contractor or the contractor that does not know what they are doing will decline to bid a job when confronted with a requirement to obtain the proper city or state permits. This will help to eliminate those contractors that you would not like working on your home due to lack of experience.
7. Permits help to weed out the sloppy bidder and the scam artist. Telling your contractor that they will need to get the required permit will make sure that they bid in all the items that will need to be upgraded or replaced for a complete and safe installation. Many times people bidding jobs will inadvertently or in some cases deliberately leave out portions of the job only to later claim that they were "unforeseen circumstances" and need to be added in the job at a substantial expense. The permit requirement will make the sloppy salesperson look into the job a little more in-depth and if salesperson were purposely trying to underbid the job by leaving something out, you have just told them that you are an educated customer. You will almost certainly receive a better quality and more thorough bid.