Contractor/Electrician Nightmare
When we decided to add wd to the rental unit our contractor told us that electrical service is not adequate and we would need to do an upgrade. He brought licensed electricians who gave us an estimate for this work – $5,500. They said that this price includes a fee that they have to pay…
When we decided to add wd to the rental unit our contractor told us that electrical service is not adequate and we would need to do an upgrade. He brought licensed electricians who gave us an estimate for this work – $5,500. They said that this price includes a fee that they have to pay Con Edison because they have to apply for this and Con Edison has to unlock our meters.
Then strange things start to happened: we waited for Con Edison to show up 3 times but we never saw them. Finally, 2 months later electricians showed up without calling and said that they would break the meters themselves since Con Ed did not show up. We were worried that we could get in trouble if they broke locks but they assured us that they had a license and they do this all the time.
continued…
All Con Ed has to do is to come that lock our meters when job is done. then they did part of the work and said that they come back during the week to continue but we asked them to warn us on the day because they we going to turn off electricity for an entire day. We have house full of small kids, ours and tenants and we wanted to warn everybody ahead of time. They did not call during the week but they showed up next Saturday and said that they are going to turn off electricity for a whole day.
So, we sent them back. Then we agreed that they will pick a day and call us ahead. All in all it took another month to complete this job. But they left holes in the wall, ripped off our railing from the wall
when they went to the roof and left area under the meters where they dig open. When we asked who is going to fix all of this, they said that general contractor (who is actually related to one of them ) promised to do all this. And the most important in this is that area under the meters with all enclosed wiring should be cemented. Because this job should be checked by Con Ed inspector and he will not approve this upgrade if it is not done. They really insisted that we pay them in full because their part of the job wasdone and we do not have to pay anything to GC because it is part of the agreement between them to complete all leftover work.
I am trying to get hold on GC and his partner for 3 weeks. They do not answer and never called back after million of messages that I left them.
Now we have no idea where we standing with this upgrade. I wanted to call Con Ed and ask them. But my husband says that we can get in trouble: what if this upgrade was not filed properly? (remember that it was a very strange story that Con Ed did not show up to unlock the meters). What if they send somebody, find violations and shut off our service altogether? We have 4, 22 months, 7 and 9 years old children in our house. We can not go without electricity! what if they fine us like couple of thousand? He suggest that we keep calling GC and electricians. But nobody answers…Do they have any responsibility at all in completing this job if they actually filed an application? If they do, I will leave new messages for them and if they care about their license, they will probably respond. Also, do you think that it is good idea to call Con Ed to talk about this, check he status of this application and ask them what actually should be done in order to make this upgrade acceptable? Do you think that they can punish us if something went wrong during this upgrade or it is only electrician who holds responsibility?
I just purchased a small home with fuses. I need to upgrade so I called Comed first and they said to just have an electrician do any upgrades and work. After the work was complete call Comed back and they would send someone out to inspect it so they could do their upgrades. I have not done it yet but hopefully it will go as smooth as promised.
I am renovating my 2 family brooklyn home. I had the orginal wiring and electical boxes in my home that was there when it was built (before 1925). I am luck enough to have a electrician as a friend and he is doing the job for me. Each of the three floors in my home had only 2 separate lines (which means when I was vacuming I had to turn off the ac, etc.). All my friend did was give me now boxes with extra circuit brakers and ran the electrical lines throughout the house (it was messy though). I too thought I had to notify Con Edison but he told me that the only time Con Edison inspects a job is when an electrician combines two or more accounts thus having to remove one of CE’s boxes and of course if a new account meter has to be added.
I would definitely call CE. Something sounds fishy here. As long as you pay your bill they will not shut off your lights. Even if you have a non-emergency electrical problem (such as no power, etc.) they make you call an electrician first and if the electrician says it is CE’s problem – then they will send someone over and credit you the fee you paid the electrician. I think someone else posted that it would be the Building Dept. that would cite you. If you find out that they were full of BS you might want to take them to small claims court for fraudelent misrepresentation. Good luck and e-mail me if you need anything else. Stacey0768@aol.com
If you don’t trust con-ed, you can call this guy :
Scott Schnall – 718-875-2036
He’s an experienced expiditor, and can check on the job and see where it stands (for a fee, of course). There are others of course, but he seems good. I don’t think con-ed would be the one fining you, it would probably be the DOB. You can always call and play dumb and not give them your name.
Someone should have filed the job. Con Ed is really pretty good about showing up for jobs. Some companies have very good relations with con ed and know inspectors by name. They sometimes can bend the rules a little because they always do work that is on the up and up. They would have filed something with con ed outlining what the load would be on the new service. By breaking the meters do you mean cutting the security pin? The meters screw off very easily. I would call 311 and ask for assistance. You can do this without giving your name. They will tell you what your contractor should have done and if your contractor is licensed. Do you have a written contract?
I’m so sorry to hear about your fiasco. The more I talk to people the more I hear horror stories about workers and GCs. So you are not alone if that’s any consolation.
I don’t have much advice other than I would send them a letter saying if you don’t get XXX by YYY that you will take them to small claims court. If that doesn’t work I would sue them. Can you complain to the Better Business Bureau and I’m wondering if there is an association of licensed electricians? I wouldn’t call ConEd just yet.
You could also call in another licensed electrician to asses the situation or ask an architect.