Case: the aluminum-wiring flip
In one paragraph
An investor flipping a 1970 house wants the aluminum branch wiring 'taken care of' for the buyer's inspection, cheap and fast: pigtail every device with twist-on connectors, no permit, be done Friday. Omar Haddad, C-10, says no to the method the federal safety agency calls not a permanent repair and no to the missing permit, and offers the two rungs CPSC recognizes with real prices: AlumiConn connectors at every connection under a permit with AFCI on the modified circuits, or a copper rewire. The investor hires someone else. Nine months later the buyer's attorney calls Omar as a witness. The names are invented; the CPSC position is quoted.
The rule
The Consumer Product Safety Commission approves three permanent repairs for aluminum branch-circuit wiring: complete replacement with copper, the COPALUM crimp, and the AlumiConn connector, and does not consider pigtailing with twist-on connectors or CO/ALR devices an acceptable permanent repair (CPSC Publication 516). Terminals and connectors must be identified for aluminum (2025 CEC 110.14); modifying the wiring of dwelling bedroom and living-area circuits brings them under AFCI protection (210.12(E)); and altering an electrical system requires a permit (89.108.4.1), the willful disregard of which is a disciplinary cause (B&P 7110(h)).
Why it matters
Flippers are a channel, and the aluminum house is their favorite call: they want a receipt that says 'aluminum wiring remediated' at the lowest price, and the receipt has your license number on it. The case is about the one method you will be asked for and cannot give, how to say no without losing every flipper in town, and what the file looks like when the house burns.