Goedjn wrote:

Les Fingers wrote:


How can an electrician develop a contract to perform electrical work
and not understand the local code requirements. He needs to
understand electrical work more than he understands contracts. This
is called ignorance of the law...on his part.

Sounds like you need to take the electrican and the documentation to
small claims court.


You'll lose, in court. If the extra work needed to be done, then
it doesn't matter whether the cost of is was included in the original
quote. Only if the original quote was both a firm quote instead
of an estimate, *AND* it includes phrasing like "and any other
incidental work" that implies doing whatever it takes to get the
job finished do you even have an argument. And it's unlikely
that both of the above will be true at the same time. Then,
given that small claims courts are courts of equity, you're unlikely
to be able to get the judge to let you make a profit off of the
tradesman's mistake, unless you can show that he did it on purpose,
or was exceptionally negligent or incompetent, *AND* that the
resulting mistake cost you _extra_ money. Which it didn't,
as the additional $350 is just what it would have cost you had
he (or some other, smarter electrician) gotten the quote right, the
first time. I suppose you might have an argument if you
can show that $350 is excessive for a pull-box.

On what are you basing this position? That would certainly not be the
outcome in many states. Home improvement contracting is much more
heavily regulated than most other kinds. As a licensed electrician I am
responsible for the completeness of the job. If my work fails
inspection my residential customer does not have to pay me for the work.
State or local law requires that the work be executed to comply with
code. It is the contractors responsibility to plan a compliant
installation. Because a home owner has no way to judge the completeness
of the proposed work the law in most places is that compliance is the
contractors responsibility.
--
Tom