I'll give you a little example of how the liability can flow on a site. Which is what contractors should be paying attention to.
I do some work for fire contractors in my area, many would consider this a higher risk. Stuff like kitchen equipment shutdowns and interlocking with other alarms, air handling units and the like. Explosion-proof areas like paint booths and production painting equipment, paint kitchens, paint robots, equipment interlocking plant shutdowns.
The fire guys call to have a kitchen fire system done over the holidays in a large senior building. They want the job installed over the holiday, and get the inspections done after the new year. We've done plenty of these systems at various type buildings over the years. They put their equipment in, then I go behind them to do my part. While working during holiday hours the inspector shows up, city offices were closed and unable to obtain the permit before starting.
The inspector is in a huff over the job, and is having a fit over work being done during the holiday. He badgers me and my help, the office staff and management at the facility. I got his point that your supposed to get a permit beforehand. I also explained the circumstances of the job and assured that we would handle the paperwork as soon as the offices were opened back up. He goes away mad and dissatisfied.
In my years of doing this type work I never encountered an inspector that acted like this. I figured that something happened at this site in the past and that there were issues before I got there. So after the job was done, tested, certified, and inspected, I asked the fire contractor owner what was up with that project, why was there so much anxiety and distrust with the city, did they have bad relations with that city?
Then he proceeded to tell the story. The building was relatively new and housed many senior apartments and constructed of wood, 3 stories if I remember correctly. When the building and it's systems were installed, everything was inspected and passed. When the contractor that I was working with got the facility as a customer, they do a complete site inspection and generate a report. This gets sent to the management, owner, city officials and fire Marshall.
On that report, it stated that the many gas dryer vents were snaking through the wood structure in violation of the fire codes. Problem was, it was specked on the prints and built that way, then approved by the inspectors. It took the 2nd fire contractor to point it out, which helps remove their liability from prior inadequacies. This put the city as well as the management on the hook so to speak, they approved the plans and the build. The management of course didn't want the expense of replacing the vents through the building, and the city didn't want the liability of their errors of not catching it then approving it.
I think like 250 people lived in that structure. Then it became perfectly clear why the city was on the muscle at that site. It was documented and they clearly had some liability. The management had the opinion that they payed for approved construction and were looking to someone else for the upgrade cost. I told the fire contractor if they ever pulled that **** on me again, they would be done.
The moral of the story is that people make mistakes or just don't know the rules. Even if they have a title and a badge. In this case the architect, plan reviewer, mechanical contractor, building contractor, first fire contractor and the fire Marshall. They were all looking for others to place the liability on after the fact, the deeds were done. Just a real world example of what things can be like in the contractors realm. and why you learn to cover your ****.
MTW Ω
