Circa 1999. I was a one man building department in a southern California city with a population of 46,000. I was the permit clerk, plan checker for anything under 600 sq.ft. and inspector…oh I was also stuck with code enforcement. The office was under a contract from Los Angeles County. I had a great deal of autonomy and not much County oversight. In fact, I might not see anyone from the County for months on end.
Well as happens in any building department, the permit file tends to clog with permits that never got an inspection. Periodically, I would pull those files and attempt to complete an inspection rather than expire the permit. It happened a lot with water heaters and furnaces. The contractors would mail the owner a notice telling the owner to request an inspection.
Owners would ignore that. It was especially common when the water heater was purchased from a big box retailer such as Sears or Home Depot. The owners assumed that the store that installed the unit is professional enough that there is no need for an inspection. Of course that’s speculation on my part and there’s a host of reasons why the owners ignore the notice.
Patterns emerged and two contractors in particular had a boatload of dead permits for water heaters. Contractor one had a dozen or so. Contractor two was closer to twenty. I sent them a list of addresses and cordially requested that they arrange an inspection. I made it clear that the responsibility for the inspection fell on the contractor, not the owner. Neither company reacted. I sent a less cordial letter.
Contractor one was exclusive to Sears. The contractor answered the phone, “Sears.” I contacted Sears HQ in Chicago. I threatened to institute proceedings against the corporation for contracting without a license in the state of California. That got the local contractor to jump on it.
Contractor two… well I couldn’t pin down which store he got his leads from. His permit runner came in with the usual fistful of applications after a store had a sale on water heaters. I took the applications and confirmed that the water heaters had been installed. Now I had them where I wanted them. Instead of issuing permits, I levied fines for working without permits. I had a prepared list of fines for the addresses that had expired permits. I gave all of that to the permit runner. The total was over $2000.00.
As you can imagine, the contractor was miffed. So much so that he demanded a meeting with the city attorney. The meeting had a rocky beginning. The contractor’s initial salvo was the statement that if the fine was not waived he would tell Home Depot, Lowes and Sears that he was done working in our city.
I managed to take the temperature down and I convinced the contractor that inspections are to his benefit. After all, he’s paid for the permit so why not follow the rules. He calmed and agreed that inspections are his chore to complete and he promised to meet his obligations going forward. Then he asked about waiving the fines.
I thought for just a moment and then I said, “I can waive the fines. And I will waive the fines if you promise to stop working in our city.” He paid the fines.
It is worth noting that as the city attorney and I were headed to the meeting I told him that I made up the fines… there was nothing to back it up… pulled out of thin air as it were. He said, not to worry, the contractor won’t know that.
You could say that's Tiger Code at it's finest.
Well as happens in any building department, the permit file tends to clog with permits that never got an inspection. Periodically, I would pull those files and attempt to complete an inspection rather than expire the permit. It happened a lot with water heaters and furnaces. The contractors would mail the owner a notice telling the owner to request an inspection.
Owners would ignore that. It was especially common when the water heater was purchased from a big box retailer such as Sears or Home Depot. The owners assumed that the store that installed the unit is professional enough that there is no need for an inspection. Of course that’s speculation on my part and there’s a host of reasons why the owners ignore the notice.
Patterns emerged and two contractors in particular had a boatload of dead permits for water heaters. Contractor one had a dozen or so. Contractor two was closer to twenty. I sent them a list of addresses and cordially requested that they arrange an inspection. I made it clear that the responsibility for the inspection fell on the contractor, not the owner. Neither company reacted. I sent a less cordial letter.
Contractor one was exclusive to Sears. The contractor answered the phone, “Sears.” I contacted Sears HQ in Chicago. I threatened to institute proceedings against the corporation for contracting without a license in the state of California. That got the local contractor to jump on it.
Contractor two… well I couldn’t pin down which store he got his leads from. His permit runner came in with the usual fistful of applications after a store had a sale on water heaters. I took the applications and confirmed that the water heaters had been installed. Now I had them where I wanted them. Instead of issuing permits, I levied fines for working without permits. I had a prepared list of fines for the addresses that had expired permits. I gave all of that to the permit runner. The total was over $2000.00.
As you can imagine, the contractor was miffed. So much so that he demanded a meeting with the city attorney. The meeting had a rocky beginning. The contractor’s initial salvo was the statement that if the fine was not waived he would tell Home Depot, Lowes and Sears that he was done working in our city.
I managed to take the temperature down and I convinced the contractor that inspections are to his benefit. After all, he’s paid for the permit so why not follow the rules. He calmed and agreed that inspections are his chore to complete and he promised to meet his obligations going forward. Then he asked about waiving the fines.
I thought for just a moment and then I said, “I can waive the fines. And I will waive the fines if you promise to stop working in our city.” He paid the fines.
It is worth noting that as the city attorney and I were headed to the meeting I told him that I made up the fines… there was nothing to back it up… pulled out of thin air as it were. He said, not to worry, the contractor won’t know that.
You could say that's Tiger Code at it's finest.
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