Dear Editor:
As a concerned citizen, I welcome the announced intention of the government to establish some order in the number of seemingly unregulated and unlicensed business (‘pop up businesses’) springing up all over Grand Cayman. Might I suggest that the list be expanded to include air conditioning and refrigeration businesses as well?
I have been keeping an unofficial count as I drive around Grand Cayman and I am amazed at the plethora of companies and individuals offering this service. Some, as I have observed, consist of no more than a single individual carrying a dirty rag and a few hand tools with a cylinder of freon.
Apart from the customer protection through the regulation of certified and registered technicians offering such services, there is the question of the retrieval of the greenhouse gases released when servicing and repairing this equipment. I have noticed that not even the established companies are required to have such provisions.
May I suggest that the authorities use the opportunity of the regulation to enforce proper standards, protocols and best practices so that customers get qualified technicians and that responsibility is exercised to eliminate the release of freon and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere?
The review is a grand opportunity for the government to establish a regulatory arm of OfReg, the cost of which could be met by the license fees paid and from fines meted out to non-compliant businesses or individuals.
J. A. Roy Bodden
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Is the proposed “crackdown” intended to expose and shut down illegal “businesses”, or have them normalized so they can be a source of fee revenues?
We’ve all heard that these businesses are created as a perceived “foot in the door” to permanent residency. Is that really the case? Maid services, baby sitting services, lawn care, construction…sometimes all combined under one umbrella. As Mr. Bodden has indicated, add A/C “companies”.
I’m curious about the ‘pop-up’ car rental “companies”. Surely they can’t be illegal, having vehicles requiring licences? Or are they? Surely a T&B License would have to be produced? There seems to be more of these than barefoot dogs and Honda Fits, combined.
Although, using the disconnect involving “illegal” dirt bikes as an example where bikes are legally imported and Govt collects the relevant duty but then DMV won’t license them, it wouldn’t be a stretch to consider illegal car rental companies being able to license a vehicle without the pertinent T&B License.
Everyday there are incidents of conflicting CIG actions where one department doesn’t know what the other is doing.