ORBIT360 4K Certifications/insurance/liability/etc

[TonyBillingsley]

As my skills have grown (they are not great, yet), the number of people asking me to do little projects for them has also grown.

I'm well aware of my own limitations (which are many), and have enough sense to be reasonably sure that I will not build something that is going to catch fire or electrocute somebody. So when a friend's project involves mains voltage, or chance of heat buildup, etc, I don't take on the project. I haven't yet done such a project for a friend, much less for pay, but as the requests are starting to grow it has me wondering about this subject.

Specifically, not the safety questions, which I feel able to research on my own, but the legal questions. Can anyone recommend resources on the subject for the US? I did a tiny bit of searching and was not able to come up with anything clear.

I assume that if someone asked me to build a control box that switched on and off mains circuits in their house, paid me money for it, and I installed it, and it burned their house down and killed people, that there would be two consequences:

1 - I would go to prison for a long time
2 - their insurance https://insurancelawa.com/phone-number- ... insurance/ would laugh off any claims they submitted for the house burning down / medical problems / etc.

But what about the milder cases... e.g. I voluntarily (no $) help a friend automate their garden watering system (low-voltage electronics only) and it malfunctions and causes excess water to drain into a neighboring property, causing damage.

Would I be civilly liable for those damages? Is there any way to help a friend with a project like that without exposing yourself to civil liability? If the friend had applicable insurance, would it care about the DIY system? If so, how should the friend have prepared?

My instinct is that my friend would be responsible, not myself, but I'm obviously pretty unclear on it all.

Since UL listing is not accessible for a little project like that, and I'm not a certified electrician or a bonded professional, are there any other options, or am I just totally on my own when I DIY, and all guarantees and safeguards against civil/criminal/financial risk go out the window? Does any of this landscape change when you deal with low voltage only?

Another example: a non-profit organization needs a custom electronic widget made that involves mains voltage; they hire a company to build it for them; that company is presumably insured and so forth. But would the device they make be UL listed? Or is there some "custom-made high-voltage equipment" exception where they are allowed to build and deploy such devices because they are insured? If the space the non-profit rents burns down because of the equipment, does their insurance care that they had custom-made equipment from a professional shop, as long as deployment of that equipment was within reason and per the installation instructions?

I don't expect anyone to write an essay for me, here, but if you have any thoughts I'd welcome them, and any pointers for ways to research this general subject. The "maker" world doesn't seem to cover this often, but if I'm wrong about that, I'd love some links.

My immediate need is to know where any red lines are when it comes to friends/businesses/non-profits asking me to build things for them.

Thanks!