Weekend Side Work, an Unsupervised Apprentice, and a Vacant Qualifier
A journeyman electrician employed by a licensed Idaho electrical contractor rewires the service panel and most branch circuits in a duplex owned and rented out by his brother-in-law, for $2,200 cash. He pulls no permit, and on Saturday he brings a first-year apprentice. At noon the journeyman leaves for another job; the apprentice finishes the panel terminations and energizes the 200 A service alone. Separately, the contractor's designated master electrician quit six months ago. The company has kept bidding work and pulling permits using the former master's name. A tenant complaint about flickering lights brings the city inspector, who finds the unpermitted side work and the open panel.
1. Identify the licensing and permitting violations in each situation, and explain why each one matters.
Read the worked answer
Side job (the journeyman):
- A journeyman license authorizes electrical work only as an employee of a properly licensed electrical contractor. Contracting directly with a property owner for compensation - here $2,200 with no employing contractor - is electrical contracting without an electrical contractor license, which Idaho prohibits.
- The property is a rental duplex, not the owner's own residence, so no owner-occupant exception could apply.
- No permit was obtained and no inspection was requested; adopted codes require permits and inspections for service and branch-circuit work.
Apprentice:
- Apprentices must work under the supervision of a licensed journeyman or master. Leaving a first-year apprentice to terminate and energize a 200 A service alone is both a supervision violation and a serious safety exposure.
Contractor:
- A contractor license is tied to a designated master electrician who provides responsible charge. Continuing to bid and pull permits in the name of a departed master is a misrepresentation to the AHJ and the Board.
2. The contractor argues that a journeyman on staff can 'cover' the qualifier requirement. Evaluate that claim and state what the contractor must do to come back into compliance.
Read the worked answer
The claim fails.
- Idaho's electrical licensing scheme separates the individual credentials (apprentice, journeyman, master) from the business credential (electrical contractor). Only a master electrician may serve as the designated qualifier for an electrical contractor.
- A journeyman license does not qualify a business, no matter how much field experience the individual has. Using a journeyman's name on permit applications would be the same misrepresentation as using the departed master's name.
- Supervision by a journeyman is a separate requirement from qualification of the business; satisfying one does not satisfy the other.
To become compliant, the contractor must:
- Designate a qualifying master electrician and notify the licensing authority of the change so the contractor license reflects a live qualifier.
- Stop bidding and stop pulling permits until the qualifier is in place, and correct any permits already issued under the former qualifier's name.
- Notify the AHJ of the discrepancy, since permits issued on a false qualifier can be voided and the work re-inspected.
Expect board discipline and possible citations for the period the business operated without a qualifier.
3. What must the journeyman do if he wants to keep performing this kind of work legally, and what should happen to the unpermitted duplex job?
Read the worked answer
For the journeyman to do the work for pay:
- He must either perform the work as an employee of a licensed electrical contractor, or form/own a business that holds an electrical contractor license with a qualifying master electrician.
- Every job requires a permit and inspection from the AHJ having jurisdiction; the license does not substitute for the permit.
- He should stop energizing or altering the duplex until that structure is in place.
For the duplex job already installed:
- Submit a permit application and disclose the existing work (an as-built/retroactive permit, if the AHJ allows it).
- Expect a full inspection: service grounding and bonding, conductor sizing, box fill, overcurrent protection, and the panel terminations the apprentice closed.
- Correct deficiencies under inspection and obtain a signed final before the tenant occupies or continues to occupy the unit.
- Cooperate with the Board's investigation; attempting to hide the work or re-energize ahead of inspection will worsen the exposure.
Note: specific fee schedules, continuing-education hours, and apprentice supervision ratios are set in the Board's current rules - verify the current text rather than relying on secondhand numbers.