From the New York Post:
NYC building inspectors use ‘speed trap’-style stakeouts against contractors
City building inspectors are running speed trap-style operations to catch contractors violating a coronavirus ban on “non-essential” construction work — and to slap homeowners with maximum, $10,000 fines, The Post has learned.
I’m an elevator guy normally but they got us all doing this now,” the inspector told The Post.
“Except for essential work, there are no inspections. So to keep us all working, they got us out making sure everybody complies with the governor’s order.”
For some reason, letting a couple of contractors work on a building during the lockdown will kill grandma, so it’s been banned. Without construction, city inspectors are not inspecting.
So Cuomo and de Blasio turn them into narcs, staking out buildings to bust contractors doing work that the governor decided was “non-essential.”
Meanwhile, an electrician who was hired by a nearby homeowner said he was “followed” to the house by a different inspector on Monday — then drove off when the inspector pulled alongside his van and parked across the street.
The electrician said that he wanted to work, but that getting fined “makes it not worth it.”
Last week, he said, the same inspector who tailed him had pounced on a floor re-finisher, slapping the contractor with a $2,500 fine, plus $1,000 for each of his helpers — along with a maximum, $10,000 fine for the homeowner.
Cuomo can force sick people into nursing homes but a homeowner can’t get a couple of guys who want to work and feed their families to have their floors redone. That will kill grandma.
That inspector told The Post that a violation occurs as soon as a contractor “steps onto the property.”
“The fine for having any work done is $10,000. First offense. No exceptions,” he said.
This has NOTHING to do with COVID. This has everything to do with revenue for the state by fining rich people getting their homes remodeled.
The inspector, who was behind the wheel of a dark Toyota Prius with DOB markings, said he’s also under orders to investigate the activities of any contractors he’s able to spot.
He was just following orders to bankrupt people.
HVAC contractor John Heffernan, who owns Pride Maintenance & Mechanical Inc. of Bayside, said he was working at a house in Sheepshead Bay two weeks ago when a DOB inspector “boxed in my truck” with his car “and ran into the house I was working on.”
“He told the homeowner he was getting a $10,000 fine and I was getting fined $5,000 for each employee,” Heffernan said.
“I had to prove I was fixing the heat before he let us off.”
Fucking Karen – She Wolf of the SS.
The agency also noted that homeowners can apply for permits for non-essential work that’s “being completed by a single worker who is the sole employee/worker on the job site.”
Because flooring can be done by one guy.
This is just fascist. Sending inspectors to gleefully bust people for working and fining them into oblivion is just cruel. But that’s all New York has left in it, cruelty and tyranny.
I wonder if caltrops are still readily available.
Easy enough to make if they’re not.
“I had to prove I was fixing the heat before he let us off.”
No, that’s not how this works. The burden of proof is on the wrong party. The contractor doesn’t have to prove his work is allowed; the inspector has to prove it’s not.
Placing the burden of proof on the accused — and then limiting their access to resources (through seizures, freezes, and fines) to mount a legal defense — is something tyrannical fascist and communist governments do.
Besides which, regarding that electrician who pulled away, electrical work should absolutely be deemed essential. So should plumbing work, for that matter.
Enough HVAC systems run wholly or in part on electricity that electricians should be given the benefit of doubt when they show up at a home. Plus, bad wiring causes a huge number of house fires, so even if the issue isn’t HVAC-related, it could still be a literal life-saver.
Ditto for plumbing work. You do NOT want to see the sanitary conditions that result of plumbing going bad. Or when water from leaky pipes drips into electrical junction boxes.
Ditto again for general contractors fixing a leaky roof, or broken windows, or failed siding. First rule of contracting: Protect the “shell” of the structure. Moisture gets in, it allows mold to grow. Mold makes homes unlivable because it’s a hazard to the occupants’ … *ahem* … health and safety.
But deeming some work “essential” and banning (and punishing) the rest isn’t about health or safety. It is — and always has been — about control and revenue.
Or how about our friend “divemedic” who had a small electrical fire (thank goodness it was small). The reason was a hot tub that wasn’t wired into its own separate circuit along with some devices being wired in series instead of parallel. I think I said that correctly.
Now he has to get an electrician out there to rewire the hot tub. I’m sure that’s not considered “essential”
But he’s in Florida, so it’s A-Okay! Fortunately.
Then again, given my experience with electricians’ work, I prefer to do the work myself. I have seen electricians do good work; I have also seen them commit major code violations, up to and including ungrounded electrical baseboard heaters in bathrooms.
When I do my own work I know it’s done the way I want it done. And since i live in NH, it’s perfectly legal for me to do so.
Anddd…your point would be….
Oh, yes. The Unmasking Continues.
Good lord what jumped up little tyrants. How long till that Prius and jackwagon gets found having accidentally run into a lake.
These communities aren’t that large most of the time and hopefully word gets around who is snitching.
You know it’s not about health & safety when they immediately slap people with fines, instead of saying “If you stop work now, you will not get a fine.”
I wonder what they’d do if a few of these inspectors… y’know… disappeared.
Lawlessness begats Lawlessness. How long before a Tony Soprano type steps in, for a modest fee, to allow these guys to work? All it takes is one or two of these narcs (and their families) to be sent a message, and next thing you know just as the contractor doesn’t want to risk a fine, a narc won’t want to risk his life.
Thank Jesus I live in Texas. During this lockdown, these dudes were out fixing houses, rebuilding, building houses, fixing AC, electric, mowing lawns. My AC people said they were restricted from maintenance work but break-fix and installs were still OK. They just opened up maintenance, and they are booked solid until the end of July.
I can see that. I’m sure for half the price of the fine some union thug would be happy to spread the word that “Sal’s Plumbing and Electrical isn’t to be fined for working during the lockdown” with the liberal application of pipe to inspector kneecap.