Approximately 3 years ago I was called to a house to do a quote. The people were putting an addition on for a bigger kitchen it looked like it was going to be very nice. We talked for quite a bit about what they wanted and I had a look at their main panel and service it was very old and did not have the capacity so I said we should be do an upgrade. I priced out the work that needed to be done and sent them a quote I was told they were going to do the work themselves.

I was by the house sometime later I could see they did not upgrade the service but the addition looked done about 2 years later I was contacted by an insurance investigator saying he had found a quote of mine in a house where there was a fire and would I speak to him? After looking up the quote and finding it was the house above I said yes. He explained that the fire was thought to be started by an electrical fault and asked if we did any work in the house and did we get a permit for it because there was no permit on file. I explained as it said in the quote I would not do the work unless the main service was upgraded and the people thought it was too expensive so they did it themselves

I was asked to give a sworn statement and the people did end up saying they had done the work them selves without a permit.

The happy part of the story luckily no one was hurt in the fire.

The sad part of the story is they were not paid out by the insurance company.

Hire only Licenced Electrical contractors and insist they get permits from ESA

FULLY LICENSENED AND INSURED

ELECTRICAL SAFETY AUTHORITY   ESA   

ECRA # 7001020