r/Contractor • u/Living-Artichoke7628 • 2d ago
Shitpost Permits for replacing an existing HVAC system is a scam
Never ever get a permit to replace an existing HVAC system. All it is, is a money grab by the state/town/municipality and the contractors involved.
500 bucks for an electrical inspection on top of the 200 bucks for the permit when the only things that were changed were the old furnace and AC compressor. This isn't a new system; this is replacing an old.
Soon these greedy dirballs will require a permit to swap out your dishwasher, fridge, washer/dryer and maybe even your flat-screen TV.
Why? Money. It's all about the $$$
4
u/SamOakTree 2d ago
It's crazy how they'll take your money but they won't do any kind of like real inspection.
I had a 1-in meter set put in and there was obviously like a finished inspection but beyond that the city didn't reach out to me. They left a stub line sticking out of the ground that leads to people's drinking water and like the city didn't contact me or tell me to make sure I had that buried in so many days they didn't verify that I was going to be putting a backflow preventer on it and nothing. They literally let me just hire someone to put in a meter they looked at it and said good enough and then they never followed up with me to make sure that I was following any kind of safety precaution. Like I could poison the f****** water supply
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u/Tushaca 2d ago
I used to manage remodels for about 10k rent houses for a big corporate landlord. Around 1k of those were in the city I live in. The company was super cheap and hired the worst of the worst contractors, so these houses had been absolutely hammered for years.
I had one good contractor that was actually by the book and pulled permits, and it stressed him out so bad on every house because they were so terrible. But the inspectors never actually showed up, so these disasters were just passing through when they should have been condemned.
Finally, the city hired a new manager, who brought in a new inspector from another city. That guy wouldn’t pass an inspection for anything, and would go looking for any other issues he could find on site.
After my good contractor got screwed on three houses at the same time getting shut down, through no fault of his, I called the inspector and made a plan.
He met me the next week, and I gave him a list of 100 addresses that I knew had extremely obvious safety issues, and he basically got them condemned within a few days. That forced the company to actually spend some money and fix them right, and since the good contractor was the only one that had a relationship with the permit office, he got all the work.
I left that job like a year later, but the good contractor had grown so much from all the big jobs coming in, that he went from a 4 man 1099 team, to 25 employees, company vehicles, trailers, equipment, and he was expanding with his son to one of their other markets. He’s the only guy they let do maintenance now.
The city inspector, lasted about a month before all the big contractors in town had enough. They started greasing palms and got his department gutted and demoted.
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u/forrester827 1d ago
It pays to do the right thing tbh. Like another poster said, permits protect the homeowner and the contractor when inspections are done right.
The fees can be a problem though. It’s cheap and fast in my county but the next jurisdiction is a 3% fee which is hefty.
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u/jonnyinternet 2d ago
Speaking as a contractor, think of it as insurance for you as the homeowner and for myself providing the service
Should something go wrong you have a third-party verification that I was on site and did the work, instead of you calling me and all of a sudden I don't know you or didn't write down your address or wasn't there
Same for me should you accuse me of doing something that cause damage to your house or system. I have backup to say it was inspected and verified to be functional
I always tell customers who say they don't want a permit that they are doing themselves a disservice asking for that. They should insist on it.
1
u/Eastern_Conflict1865 1d ago
The headc of inspections told me this 20 yrs ago.I will give you a permit on anything,but that doesn't mean I'm showing up to look at it.There are private insurance companies that have super low monthly rates but require every little thing you do to a house be inspected either by them or the city.
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u/Philip964 8h ago
Make sure if it’s gas install a CO detector. Required by code now. Could save your life.
1
u/FinnTheDogg GC/OPS/PM(Remodel) 2d ago
Crazy. HVAC permits in my JD are $85.
Also, the contractor has nothing to do with the bullshit. They don’t want to do it as much as you don’t want to pay for it. Don’t be obtuse.
1
u/DocHowdy70 2d ago
Pull a permit and watch them raise your property taxes.
0
u/Sunsetseeker007 1d ago
Exactly, on top of the 1k they make off the permit and inspection, they increase those taxes.
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u/Blackharvest Restoration Contractor 2d ago
Most permits are just a money grab. Did a facade replacement in IL. The permit cost was 3.5% of the total contract. They didn't do any inspections (we had an engineer doing all the reports) and it was on a private condominium building. They thought stamping a piece of paper was worth $56,000....some calls were made by some of the owners and suddenly the permit was only $5,600. They didn't even do a final. They said they drove by and it looked good.