In September I hired Michael D. Pirtle as a general contractor to perform numerous home improvements to my newly acquired home. One of the many jobs included rewiring the entire house, which at the time was not fully grounded or up to code. The work, which was subcontracted by Mr. Pirtle to an electrician friend, cost $1,200 and covered the installation of a new fuse box, the grounding of all existing outlets (both interior and exterior) plus the addition of 2 new outlets; one to the master bedroom and the other to the bathroom (which at the time had no existing outlets). This was paid by check to Mike Pirtle of Mid-Dixie as the electrician was employed under him at the time.
I did not notice a problem with the electrical work until June when the breakers began to trip on a regular basis and several of the outlets were no longer functioning properly. Aside from that, there was the matter of the existing outlets to both the side porch and the back, which were never updated. I tried to contact the electrician several times, but was unsuccessful in doing so. I then contacted Mr. Pirtle, who agreed to personally handle all of the needed repairs. He brought along his son, who repaired the broken outlets but did not attend to the fuse box. I did not realize this until my parents were guests in my house for an extended period of time in February. The breakers began tripping once again, but more frequently (we could not operate the microwave and the toaster oven at the same time or the breakers would trip as I am a single home owner, I never noticed this before, having never operated several appliances simultaneously).
At this time I decided to recruit a third party to take a look at what was causing the breakers to trip. That was when I discovered the myriad of problems associated with electrical work performed on my house. I contacted Mr. Pirtle and informed him of this, asking that he pay for the repairs. The electrician I hired took photographs of the wiring, which was left a tangled mess burried under insulation in the attic by the electrician Mr. Pirtle hired and was never attended to during his secondary visit. According to my hired electrician, the work performed on the house was both shoddy and left obviously incomplete.
In addition to the problems associated with the fuse box there were two junk boxes installed above the kitchen sink (where the kitchen sink would later be installed at the time only the piping from the plumbing to the sink was in place). These fuse boxes, which were not secured to the wall, contained live wires. I was not aware of this until Mr. Sharpe notified me of this. I was told, at the time of installation, they were dead wires that needed to be capped and placed in boxes for safety issues. Two separate cabinet installers (one from Lowes and one from Home Depot) informed me that I could not have cabinets installed anywhere on or near these boxes due to safety issues. I was also informed that these live wires should not have been placed in junk boxes so close to a water source or in an area where cabinets are to be installed. The removal of the boxes and rethreading of the wires were both performed by the electrician. The repairs to the wall were performed by a general contractor.
Since I had already given Mr. Pirtle the opportunity to make the repairs the first time and the wiring was apparently left unattended to, I requested that I be able to hire a certified electrician on my own and have Mr. Pirtle recoup the cost -to which he initially agreed. I contacted him via telephone and certified mail, sending him a detailed letter of the electrical problems, copies of photographs taken and a receipt for the cost of repairs to the electrical work only with the agreement that I would cover all other associated costs (such as time lost from work, the covering of the holes left in the kitchen wall by the removed junk boxes).
Upon receiving these documents and contacting my electrician about the repairs made, he agreed to pay the $800 and scheduled to meet with me on May 23 at 10am. I asked him specifically on the phone if he wanted to pay the $800 or if I should attempt to recoup my costs through court. He led me to believe he fully intended to pay the cost of repairs upon meeting with me. I had to take time off from work to meet with him. He did not tell me he had no intentions of doing so until we met. He arrived at my residence with a folder in-hand and proceeded to tell me that he had spent enough money out-of-pocket on repairs to the electrical work and denied that the repairs made were associated with the initial $1,200 fee to have the house rewired. He claims that the 'friend' prices he gave me on all other work performed was more than enough and he would not be paying any money towards the cost of the electrical repairs.
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