City Inspector Shuts Off Gas For Using Wrong Plumber

RealDealNeverstop

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This is my latest personal experience with government abuse and corruption so there are no news links but it is a current event.

Several months ago my partner hired a plumbing company to do an oil to gas conversion on a rental property. After most of thethe work was done, it was discovered the plumber was not licensed but only had an apprentice license, which means he couldn't do anything. Upon discovery I visited the Gas and Plumbing Inspections office for the city to inform them of the situation. The Inspector did nothing about the guy posing as a licensed plumber, and it turns out the Inspector has known the guy for a few years, after telling me he had never heard of him.

The work needed to be completed so I had two other companies visit the property and submit a bid. Company Name Y gave a detailed proposal for labor and parts with a fixed price of $3,000 and the other, Name X, gave an estimate of $2,500. The latter said he wanted to have the Inspector look at it to save time by knowing exactly what the inspector wanted for it to pass inspection and we agreed. After the visit with the Inspector his estimate jumped to $8,500 and he still could not give a fixed price so we decided not to use him.

The Inspector then asked for all paperwork regarding the original plumber hired so I visited his office with it. At this time I told him the first company that gave a bid will finish the work and he said "I thought Name X was going to do it?" I said no because Name X could not give a detailed bid. He responds by saying nobody is going to finish it until we have a meeting with the original (unlicensed) plumber. After the meeting he asked again who was going to finish it and I told him Name Y. Wrong answer!

He goes to the rental property and and has all gas shut off and meters removed for "safety concerns." This whole process took several weeks so if it was about safety he would have shut the gas off when made aware of the situation. I asked him if he could recommend a plumber and he said legally he can't but he was "real comfortable" with Name X. I then called Name X and to our amazement, he could be there the next day.

Name X billed $8,500 for parts and labor. He gave no receipts for plumbing parts and was at the house for three days. When the Inspector showed up he didnt inspect anything but simply filled out the tags so the gas company could re-install the meters. What could we do but pay it? We couldn't have tenants without heat and hot water.

The whole situation is nauseating.
 

lemur

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You hired an unlicensed plumber because you wanted to cut costs and then when people told you it's not safe, you got ripped off repairing the damage done. Congratulations. Unlicensed means that they lacked the training or certification which says, 'I know building codes and what I should and should not do'.

News flash: Gas tends to be rather explosive and toxic, now if they shut off the water for 'safety' concerns, I'd be outraged but it's understandable when dealing with volatile gases under pressure.
 
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RealDealNeverstop

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You hired an unlicensed plumber because you wanted to cut costs and then you got screwed after you where told it's irresponsible. Unlicensed means that they lacked the training or certification which says, 'I know building codes and what I should and should not do'.

News flash: Gas tends to be rather explosive and toxic, now if they shut off the water for 'safety' concerns, I'd be outraged but it's understandable when dealing with volatile gases under pressure.

We hired a plumbing company claimng to be licensed and had a contract with them that included pulling permits and final payment would not be made until after it passed inspection. The company has lettered trucks, a lettered trailer, and even had a billboard advertisement.

Save your accusations and stop embarrassing yourself.

If the inspector was so worried about safety he would have shut off the gas the moment I told him who did the work. He waited almost two months and only shut it off when we didnt hire the plumber he wanted us to use.
 
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oldbetang

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You hired an unlicensed plumber because you wanted to cut costs and then when people told you it's not safe, you got ripped off repairing the damage done. Congratulations. Unlicensed means that they lacked the training or certification which says, 'I know building codes and what I should and should not do'.

News flash: Gas tends to be rather explosive and toxic, now if they shut off the water for 'safety' concerns, I'd be outraged but it's understandable when dealing with volatile gases under pressure.

The issue here is not him unknowingly hiring an unlicensed plumber. The issue is that he is a victim of extortion by a government official. I would have been screaming bloody murder about it if it were me. Receipts are a must and he should have demanded to get them. In fact, he should demand to get them. That contractor surely has to keep records.
 
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Cute Tink

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Sounds like you dealt with a corrupt individual, or one who has a vested interest, at least, with company X. You should talk with your city councilman about the situation or a supervisor if there is one. Not knowing where you are, I couldn't even look up the laws, but where I am, a person is entitled to a breakdown of the costs associated with any work done.
 
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RealDealNeverstop

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I'm sorry that you had to go through that, but this hardly proves the corruption in government at local level, at least not on a grand scale.

Never said it was on a grand scale...
 
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RealDealNeverstop

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Our main concern is retaliation as the inspector knows we have two other houses and while there is nothing wrong with them he could make our lives hell by having other inspectors do inspections to basically harass and issue fines for small things.

Knowing the real cost of the work was about $3,000 the inspector and plumber are pocketing an extra $2,500 each. We could have had another plumbing company do it but then the inspector would have just nitpicked to make it fail inspection and we simply could not re-locate the tenants during such a process.
 
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RealDealNeverstop

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In the meeting with the inspector and unlicensed plumber there was discussion about who put in the gas lines. The unlicensed plumber accused me of doing it. I had all the receipts of payments made to him as well as the contract and pointed out he was the only one doing the work and I have several witnesses. The inspector said that didnt prove anything. I said his fingerprints are on the boilers and gas lines and the inspector said that didnt prove he put in the gas lines. I asked what would prove it and he asked if I had it all on video.

Every single time I caught the unlicensed plumber in a lie the inspector either stayed quiet or actually defended him. At one point the inspector actually stated:

"He made a mistake when he said that."

Okay....im just venting because it is sooooooo unbelievably frustrating. The ironic part? Our mistake was being honest. If we had simply ignored the laws and not informed the city inspector of what was happening he would have never known we had new boilers installed. There were gas lines/meters in the house already for stoves and hot water tanks.
 
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DaisyDay

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In the meeting with the inspector and unlicensed plumber there was discussion about who put in the gas lines. The unlicensed plumber accused me of doing it. I had all the receipts of payments made to him as well as the contract and pointed out he was the only one doing the work and I have several witnesses. The inspector said that didnt prove anything. I said his fingerprints are on the boilers and gas lines and the inspector said that didnt prove he put in the gas lines. I asked what would prove it and he asked if I had it all on video.

Every single time I caught the unlicensed plumber in a lie the inspector either stayed quiet or actually defended him. At one point the inspector actually stated:

"He made a mistake when he said that."

Okay....im just venting because it is sooooooo unbelievably frustrating. The ironic part? Our mistake was being honest. If we had simply ignored the laws and not informed the city inspector of what was happening he would have never known we had new boilers installed. There were gas lines/meters in the house already for stoves and hot water tanks.
That's a really bad situation.

You should be able to sue the original plumber for damages. As for the inspector, he should be reported - is he county or town? You might be able to sue the municipality, too, on principle but that will probably cost more in time, money and aggravation than it would be worth to you. A complaint through channels might get results at little cost to you (providing your expectations aren't high).

Make a stink - try the local newspapers or news station. Sometimes they need a good outrageous story. I think the meek get more retaliation than the bold do, but it's a gamble either way.

New York City had a huge problem with building inspector corruption for years - I'm not sure it was ever resolved.
 
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RealDealNeverstop

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That's a really bad situation.

You should be able to sue the original plumber for damages. As for the inspector, he should be reported - is he county or town? You might be able to sue the municipality, too, on principle but that will probably cost more in time, money and aggravation than it would be worth to you. A complaint through channels might get results at little cost to you (providing your expectations aren't high).

Make a stink - try the local newspapers or news station. Sometimes they need a good outrageous story. I think the meek get more retaliation than the bold do, but it's a gamble either way.

New York City had a huge problem with building inspector corruption for years - I'm not sure it was ever resolved.


There are local tv stations that do undercover work and I wanted to go to them and set it up so I could have an "off the record conversation" with the inspector while wearing a wire. My partner has two daughters and is scared to death to do anything from fear of mafia tied paybacks. I told him he has seen too many movies. He said "eventually they will get caught" and I said no they wont because when people like us get screwed we don't do a damn thing about it.

I can only imagine how many other people they have screwed and I shiver to think about the elderly and other vulnerable groups.

The events are a bit crazier. Part of the contract with the original plumber was to have an additional meter installed. Not long after he started we saw a new meter in the basement so everything seemed to be okay. Until we started getting a bill from a different plumbing company. Turns out, the plumber we hired pretended to be our maintenance man and had an actual licensed company pull the permit and install the new meter. He had it billed in my partner's name because he knew he did not have a mailing address in this city so it took a while for the bill to get processed to the correct address. When I pointed out this scam in the meeting the Inspector actually said he didnt care.

It's like a really bad version of Desperate Housewives without the sexy women or royalties.
 
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RealDealNeverstop

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It's a safe bet that if the plumber doesn't keep receipts and engages in dodgy scams with building inspectors then he probably doesn't file his tax returns honestly either.

I suggest a conversation with your local IRS branch.

He gave us a receipt for the total bill but no receipts for materials, he is smart enough to cover his butt with the irs.

After dealing with the first company I was paranoid about trusting another company so I marked several pipes the inspector said needed replaced because they were not installed by a licensed plumber. Name X said he replaced those pipes but I looked and saw my marks were exactly where I made them.

I do painting and other home remodeling projects and am busting hump all the time to make it and this........%%##$&*&#@#$.....comes along and just steals. It is really really hard not to revert to the old days of using swinging tools to take care of guys like this. He represents whom Jesus said we are to love but I don't know how to love people like him and the inspector.
 
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RealDealNeverstop

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I met with Name X this morning to give him the final payment but before that I downloaded a DROID app that records audio with the screen in off mode. I was able to hold the phone in front of him and record our convo without him knowing. I got him to admit he billed much more for labor than what he actually did. Just as important, he admitted he did not give an invoice with a fixed price but only an estimate. This was not video so I verbally stated a couple of times the word "Estimate" is on the paper. This mattered because he tried claiming we had a contract for a fixed price.

This would probably not be admissible in a court room but MA does have a Board that investigates plumbers who pull this crap. How sad is that? This happens so often that the State actually has a department devoted to going after dishonest plumbers.
 
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marshlewis

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Im a plumber and you were totally ripped off as I can put in hot and cold water and gas into a large house for less than $8000 and in a single morning.. The way to get even is simple. no receipts means the plumber pulled a cashie. Just inform the IRS of the circumstances and let nature take its course.
 
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