does anyone have a phone number or a contact within the NYC dept of buildings that knows how to go about getting a low voltage permit? Everytime I call their number I get a run around. When I ask other techs if they have a low voltage permit to do work in NYC, I am usually met with a blank stare so I know this isn't exactly a hot issue. any feed back would be appreciated. Thanks Tj :toast:
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go to the City of New York website, there is a online document you can fill out. I dont know the exact address but somebody rold me thats how they got theres.
BTW, the low voltage permit is only half the battle, the other half is getting into the union controlled buildings....you better know somebody or be prepared to be handing out them $20.00's....
It's all of the same stuff we encounter here in the Washington, DC area. Every surrounding town, county and state collects their money, but nobody knows what's going on. It's all about collecting permit and license application/renewal fees.
General construction contractors are scared into assuring that permits and inspections are in place for all trades. They won't let us on the site without permits. Nobody actually performs inspections on our low-voltage permits. It's just a matter of local government figuring out a way to pick up a few hundred thousand extra bucks each month or so. Go figure.
Mitch, you are VERY correct about buildings controlled by unions. We had a system install to do for the Governor of Virginia's office in DC (a branch office close to Capitol Hill). The building management wouldn't grant us access to riser closets because we weren't union; we had to pay their in-house Lucent people to extend our four POTS lines to the existing tie cable. Cost? $550.00, and the last 50 was a tip to the "installah". Two of the lines ended up being transposed, but we just flipped them on our end at our own expense and considered it a savings.
Same thing happened to us when we set up a booth at a Chamber of Commerce function in a local hotel. We had Verizon bring us a line in for demo purposes to the MPOE. Management would not let us have our own technician extend the line to the jack at our booth. It required a $250.00 fee in addition to our booth rental for their technician to do it. Guess what? The jack two doors down had our dial tone, so we just ended up coupling three 14 foot line cords together to get our demo dial tone working at our booth. Money well-spent I suppose. Imagine if I had to pay them to correct their mistake that would have ended up being my fault anyway? Talk about the Mafia. Just like dealing with Verizon.
It's all thug driven. We little guys are trying to make a buck and save one more for the customer and look what we get. A sharp stick in the eye.
Did I miss something, when did low voltage take effect in NYC. I thought that was only in Suffork county. Recently did a job im Queens NY and was told by electrician that voice and data cabling would not pass inspection, I asked what inspection then I asked what local he was from told me 25 ( By the way, he was on furlough from his local). Thats a Long Island local, not NYC. Spoke with the architect, he said never heard of that in city. PS inspector came never even looked at voice and data cabling. :shrug:
Thornhill, this goes on nationwide. These laws go into effect on a city, town, county or state basis daily. Yes, the unions cause most of it, so in areas where there is a strong or even active presence, rest assured that permits and inspections are required. We found out the hard way even though we thought we were properly-licensed. When I asked as to why we weren't notified of the new LV license & permit requirement here ten years ago, their claim was that they contacted all licensed electrical contractors, all electrical contractors listed in the local Yellow Pages and lastly used a list provided by the local IBEW union. Gee, what a surprise.
Never was an attempt made to contact telecom contractors (a major Yellow Pages category) or the CWA union. Of course, just calling some of the interconnects that have vans rolling all over the area might have also given them a clue.
That didn't happen because that would have been the right thing to do. No, see the IBEW wants to make sure that they get all of the telephone system business. Show me an electrician who can program LCR on a PBX and I will hire him. Truth is that all they want is the wiring, but they are restricting us from the whole package with their demands.
Just play it safe and check with every town or county in which you do business. Pay the fees, pay the taxes, pay whatever they expect and just tack it onto your pricing. You have to do it, just like we do. It's a LOT of money, but it's just become a part of the cost of doing business. I hate it, but you have to respect it because if you don't, you will be out of business if the word gets our that you aren't legitimate. Don't take the risk.
Ed, we are legit,we are inc, we have all the insurance, workmans comp etc that building people look for. In all the years that we are doing this have only been asked twice for a permit, which we paid for. This was only from the local municipality, not the state. In the NYC area all they want is your insurance and comp ins nothing else. Also insurance on trucks if you park on their property. Can we hear from other techs in the Manhattan, Brooklyn etc, etc area and find out if they ever had to get permits to do voice and data cabling. Thanks Tony
