On 11/24/11 7:13 PM, Kevin's Mail wrote:
> It gives the insurance company a real good excuse not to pay the claim.
>
> I can rewire my house to my hearts content. If I shortcut things, don't get
> an inspection and the house burns because of my creative wiring should I
> really expect the insurance company to cover the loss?
>
That's a very tricky legal issue. Sure, the insurance company *might*
be able to avoid paying the claim, but there's an awful lot of
unpermitted work done on an awful lot of houses (otherwise, why would
there be so many "after the fact" permits issued when the house changes
hands), and while the insurance company might be cranky and slow, I
suspect they eventually pay.
What would the insurance company's standard of performance for rewiring be?
In California, it's legal for a homeowner to do their own work, so there
couldn't be a "has to be done by licensed professional" standard. I
suspect most other states are the same.
It can't be whether a permit was issued. Building permits are more a
revenue/land-use thing: there's lots of work that doesn't require a
permit and there's huge variation among localities in what requires a
permit and what doesn't.
It can't be "code compliant", for a variety of reasons. For instance,
which code applies, when the house was built in 1930, and has had
modifications over the last 80 years. After the fact, it might be
difficult to tell which changes were made when. Besides, I'd venture
that if you went to *any* house in my 15 year old tract, you'd find at
least one code violation (in the same way that an officer making a
traffic stop can always find some obscure thing wrong, if they want to)
I suspect that the *real standard* is something along the lines of
"willful negligence and disregard for safety", i.e. you should have
known better. And since that's a sort of subjective thing, it would
ultimately be up to some judge/jury to decide what the "reasonable
person" would think.
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