Owner Builder - Electric/Plumbing fight

[Rob Tucker]

One of the failings of the current law is that licensed trades are putting untrained and unsupervised workers onto sites with the end result often being worst workmanship than an untrained owner builder might perform. The only difference I can see, and it may be more of a liability than an asset, is that with a licensed contractor you might have recourse - but just barely.

My argument to defeat the trades inspired laws would center on assumptions of innocence under the law. This assumption could be construed as an assumption of competence and I believe the Old English basis for most of our common law theories supports this.

So by what measure is the average citizen, assumed to be sufficiently competent to defend themselves in a court of law, assumed to be incompetent to wire an outlet or glue two pieces of ABS together? I would attack the laws as providing an predisposed assumption of guilt... which is not supported in common law.