Plumber sign off

Hi all! Does anyone know just how important it is to have a plumbing sign off after a gut renovation? I’ve heard it’s necessary at resale/refinancing. But how will it impact those things?

The reason I ask is that my plumber of record is not the same person who did the job. It’s been completed a while a go but I had to supercede the job and file everything anew and, therefore, I need to get the plumber to open permits, inspect (open up walls?), and certify once again. And since the actual plumber is no longer reachable and plumber of record returns every 10th call every other month, nothing is happening.

So returning to my question – how important is it to have a plumbing sign off and if important, do I have any leverage with the plumber of record?

Thanks all once again.

katdov

in General Discussion 8 years and 4 months ago

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hkapstein | 8 years and 4 months ago

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It sounds like you have been having a frustrating experience with this job, so I’m sorry to hear that. Here’s my 2 cents, I hope you can get something out of it. I can imagine a number of problems that may or may not come up.

-Your architect wants to sign off his/her job. What does your contract say? Do you have to cooperate with the architect?
-You somehow get a class 1 violation, fines accrue until you get this signed off, and will probably be more expensive to deal with in a rush.
-Your homeowners insurance underwriter asks you to close the job at renewal.
-Major damage is caused by a water or gas leak. Does your homeowner’s policy cover plumbing under construction? Is the LLC used to pull the permit or its insurance still around?
-You need to pull another permit at some point in the future and questions come up about the existing conditions.
-You go to sell or refinance the house years down the road, and the title insurance company wants the permit closed. You must renew your permit, hire a plumber(who may want to make some changes) and expose plumbing for inspect ion. Perhaps it turns out the plumbing code was updated since you pulled your permit, so you cannot renew. Then you need to have an architect file a new job and bring in a plumber who will update your plumbing if necessary, expose the plumbing, and close the job.
-At some point, perhaps when the permit expires or the plumber’s insurance expires, DOB could demand there be a licensed plumber on job, or decide to crackdown in a number of other ways.

Maybe you can get around these issues. You could sell the house for cash, some architects will keep permits open indefinitely, insurance co may not notice. Personally I want to close the job. So what can you do?

The first thing you should do is try to get your prime contractor to close the plumbing permit, he is responsible for that. It sounds like he’s out of the picture. You could pursue this with DCA or legally, but I’ll leave a deeper discussion of that to others.

The next avenue is the licensed master plumber. Your contractor saved some dough by doing the work himself and finding a plumber to cover the paperwork. This is not allowed, but it’s very common. The plumber is on the hook, and can lose his license if it comes to DOB’s attention. That’s your main leverage, and he should want this job closed. Be aware that you’d probably get a bunch of violations on your building if DOB actually did discover this. Don’t assume that because your contractor gets the violation that you are free and clear. You’re on the hook too and he will probably refuse to pay the fines and leave you to deal with it.

So what else can you do besides push the LMP named on your permit? You could hire another plumber to close the job. It won’t be cheap. Your new LMP may not agree that everything is up to code, plus they know you’re in a tough spot. Another thing people sometimes do, would to be to hire a cheap contractor or person who does plumbing jobs and knows someone can handle the filings.

Good luck, hope that helps. I’m not a pro, so I hope others will chime in.