Welcome to my Homepage Blog. Here you'll find stories about inspections I have done and facts I think are interesting to share with you. Come back often to see what's new.
-Glenn Stewart, The House Whisperer
| Hey Dad... The AC is Missing |
| Written by Glenn Stewart |
| Friday, 11 December 2009 06:40 |
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As I rounded the back of a house during a Danville home inspection, what greeted my eyes were the skeletal remains of an air conditioning condenser unit. It was my first experience with copper theft during the height of the real estate foreclosure market. I had heard the stories about copper water supply pipes being removed from vacant houses and daring metal scavengers pulling out the copper wire from street lights... But the AC condensing unit? Well, why not? The tubing that runs through the cooling fins is copper. Copper theft reached all-time highs in 2007-2008 due to worldwide economic growth and the high price of the metal, which had quadrupled in cost in some corners of the globe, was worth between $3 and $4 a pound.
The Copper Theft Prevention Act of 2008 was introduced and aimed at cutting down on copper theft. The Copper Theft Prevention Act of 2008 - requires secondary copper recyclers (purchasers of copper that has served its original economic purpose) to keep records for at least two years of all purchases of copper property. It prohibits recyclers from accepting cash in excess of $500 for the purchase of copper property. It imposes a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for violations of this Act.
I haven't seen any missing condenser units in the past 9 months. |
