Insurance on uninspected electrical

I am in the process of starting a woodworking business. As yet my shop (separate 2 stall garage) is still covered by homeowner's insurance. As business increases I know I will have to change my policy, but I have been wondering if I may have coverage issues since I have been doing the electrical myself.

I know that the electrical is safe, but without being approved my an inspecter could an insurance company refuse to pay out if my some random incident was caused by an electrical issue? Thanks.

Hutch

P.S. I will get everything inspected at some point this summer, but I am just wondering if in the meantime I may be taking an unneccesary risk.

Around here, you need a permit to start any electrical modification that falls outside the parameter of "a direct component replacement" and that's constituted as a "repair."

I'd be at the city hall tomorrow getting a permit. Without one, if it became known that the portion of the system that was new, was responsible for any fire (or could be responsible) - I'm sure they'd deny the claim. So either pray for no problems, or hope the whole thing is a puddle so they can't tell what wasn't supposed to be there.

In a perfect world, you shouldn't need a govt stiff to sign off on what you've done to code. Too bad we don't live in one.

I had to have a site inspection before the policy was issued. My building was new construction and they just signed off on it. I would guess it's going to depend a lot on who you are dealing with and like Jim says if something does go wrong you don't have much to stand on.

We are also required to get a permit for anything other than repairs. I haven't had to deal with additions or modifications yet but I'm disinclined to get a permit to add an outlet here or there. I would probably wait until I have a couple of things done and get a permit to cover everything that's been done since the last permit. They don't do a before and after inspection. I've worked in other shops where I know for a fact the electrician never pulled a permit for the modifications and machine additions that were done. Of course I'm not recommending you go against local ordinance....

I would make sure that there is at least something on file that says an inspection was done and approved.

Tim

We don't have pre-inspections either, but we do have rough-in and finals.

The permit isn't fool proof either, since my house was sold to us with an incomplete permit for a sub panel that never should've passed inspection (probably why Curt, the previous and only other owner, never got one). So now I get to rip out the whole basement (lovely 70's ash paneling) and gut the wiring while I'm at it. It's so bad, one of the dimmer switches gets hot if you use that circuit.

We were underwritten prior to my knowledge of the current electrical (his connections look fine, but he's got way too many lights on a branch), and it's probably not in violation of code, but it still isn't safe. Besides, my gut tells me something is wrong, so I'll do what I need to to correct that.

I said what I did to cover your butt. Something on file giving you permission to be doing the work should suffice to appease the insurance company should anything happen. Not having a permit could be viewed the same as not having a licensed contractor working on the job. They would dump you in a heartbeat. Here, we're allowed to do our own electrical work if we're the owners of the property. Otherwise, you need to be licensed to work in this city and have paperwork on file with the inspections department.

Also, don't be afraid of the city officials. I became friends with the head inspector over the process of getting my plans approved and my shop built. The electrical inspector is a state contracted employee who has goofy and incredibly annoying policies about all phone calls occurring between 7 and 8:30am (no exceptions, and voicemail regarding business will not be returned or even acknowledged), but when you get through to him, he's a good guy and mostly interested in helping you pass. They're not all good, but my experience has let me know they're not all evil either.

Sounds Good!

Thanks all. You have confirmed what I have been thinking. I will go and get a permit as soon as I can.

As far as property goes, I am working out of my garage, so I should have no problems with not hiring an electrician to do the work. I think I will just need a final inspection.

Hutch