Is outlet required in a bathroom

[wyliesdiesels]

New building should meet new code. Old buildings will depend on where you live.

Installing a GFCI outlet should take $3 for an "old construction" double gang box, $10 for the outlet, $5 for the new wall plate, 30 minutes on YouTube and 30 minutes of actual work.
Seems like a bad idea to sour a sale over $18 and one hour of time.

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$10 for a GFCI? Try $15-$20...

 

[ard]

^
15a or 20a outlet jumped off a nearby circuit (work connected today) = not within code/fail.

$100 says the Home Inspector in the first post would NOT catch this requirement...

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

$100 says the Home Inspector in the first post would NOT catch this requirement...

Yep,still wrong though.

 

[Barnabas]

If you are going to add an outlet, tell the buyer exactly what you plan and see if they are OK with that. They are the only person you have to please.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

If you are going to add an outlet, tell the buyer exactly what you plan and see if they are OK with that. They are the only person you have to please.

Nope,the city and NEC trump pleasing the buyer.

 

[rjkobbeman]

I guess I look at things from a different perspective than other people do. Let me give you my take on this.



If I were to sell our house, not sure of the current value but I would guess it to be worth somewhere around $150K to $160K, and someone wanted an outlet in the bathroom, to clinch the deal I would have an outlet installed right away. I really don't consider that to be an outrageous request and after all, I do want to sell the house and I have a person who wants to buy it standing right in front of me. All he wants is an electrical outlet installed in the bathroom and he will sign the papers and the house is sold.



So I go ahead and have the outlet installed. It costs me a few hundred dollars but I sold the house and I will be getting a check for a sizable chunk of change. Is a few hundred dollars worth losing the sale over? The property taxes alone on our house are about $300 per month, so if my refusal to install an outlet causes the sale to be postponed for a few months until another buyer comes along, it will end up costing me a lot more money than having the outlet installed in the first place.



I am sure other members here will disagree with me on this issue, but that is the way I look at it.

Spot on. Clearly the folks wanting to play hard-ball and tell the potential buyers to pound sand have never sold a home before. Anything reasonable that moves the sell along is on the table. Depending on your situation, for every month the sale is delayed, lots of money can be lost. Keeping a house “ready for showing” is a pain too.


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[zmaxmotorsports]

Spot on. Clearly the folks wanting to play hard-ball and tell the potential buyers to pound sand have never sold a home before. Anything reasonable that moves the sell along is on the table. Depending on your situation, for every month the sale is delayed, lots of money can be lost. Keeping a house “ready for showing” is a pain too.


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[reader2580]

Spot on. Clearly the folks wanting to play hard-ball and tell the potential buyers to pound sand have never sold a home before. Anything reasonable that moves the sell along is on the table. Depending on your situation, for every month the sale is delayed, lots of money can be lost. Keeping a house “ready for showing” is a pain too.

To me, adding an outlet to a 1950s bathroom is not reasonable. It could easily be $1,000 if an electrician has to be hired. A whole new circuit has to be run to the panel. The circuit will also require an AFCI breaker. If the panel is old enough it might not have AFCI breakers available.

The buyers should have seen that the bathroom had no outlet. It was not a hidden issue. Nothing says the buyer is going to walk away over this.

 

[Ji m]

Spot on. Clearly the folks wanting to play hard-ball and tell the potential buyers to pound sand have never sold a home before. Anything reasonable that moves the sell along is on the table. Depending on your situation, for every month the sale is delayed, lots of money can be lost. Keeping a house “ready for showing” is a pain too.


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I lost 30+ pounds when I had to finish 20 years worth of unfinished projects to sell my 120 year old 2 family,
so I'm well versed in what it takes to sell a house (in Massachusetts, same state as the OP)

But there is a HUGE difference between a home inspectors suggestion,
and a home inspector, under the color of authority, telling you something is required when it is not.

The difference between asking and telling is my issue with this.

I addressed a full page of home inspectors suggestions when I sold my house,
but at no point were his suggestions given as failure to meet building or electrical codes,
because a home inspector should know he is not a building inspector, nor an electrical inspector.

Perfect example of this for me was when my Realitor told me Mass Code said all Smokes had to be replaced.
The city Fire Marshal disagreed and Agent was PISSED I went "over her head".

It wasn't the $200 in smokes,
it was the fact that she tried to lie and BS her way to what she wanted.

 

[Ji m]

To me, adding an outlet to a 1950s bathroom is not reasonable. It could easily be $1,000 if an electrician has to be hired. A whole new circuit has to be run to the panel. The circuit will also require an AFCI breaker. If the panel is old enough it might not have AFCI breakers available.

The buyers should have seen that the bathroom had no outlet. It was not a hidden issue. Nothing says the buyer is going to walk away over this.

^ding ding ding.

This is exactly why isn't not mandatory to add bathroom outlets to every house (unless rehabbing the bath).
Bathroom GFCI outlets save lives,
but depending on the home it could cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to do it in a way that's in full compliance with code.

The problem is,
if it's not done correctly, and it's ever an issue it is documneted that the seller did the installation at the buyers request.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

I lost 30+ pounds when I had to finish 20 years worth of unfinished projects to sell my 120 year old 2 family,
so I'm well versed in what it takes to sell a house (in Massachusetts, same state as the OP)

But there is a HUGE difference between a home inspectors suggestion,
and a home inspector, under the color of authority, telling you something is required when it is not.

The difference between asking and telling is my issue with this.

I addressed a full page of home inspectors suggestions when I sold my house,
but at no point were his suggestions given as failure to meet building or electrical codes,
because a home inspector should know he is not a building inspector, nor an electrical inspector.

Perfect example of this for me was when my Realitor told me Mass Code said all Smokes had to be replaced.
The city Fire Marshal disagreed and Agent was PISSED I went "over her head".

It wasn't the $200 in smokes,
it was the fact that she tried to lie and BS her way to what she wanted.

 

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

If I had a buyer on the hook, I'd install that outlet in heartbeat if the sale was potentially at risk. The cost is a lot less than losing the buyer and then lowering the price another $5k.

The purpose of the required GFCI outlet within 3 feet of a basin is more for safety than it is for convenience. If it weren't required, people would be running extension cords to non-GFCI outlets and inadvertently jolting themselves.

Depends on the housing market. You could tell them to pound sand around here, housing is in high demand. You'll find another buyer.

 

[Dustball]

Here's a blog post by a local reputable housing inspector addressing the issue of what you're asking-

"Does The Seller Need To Fix This?"
https://structuretech1.com/negotiations-after-the-inspection/

 

[ard]

Here's a blog post by a local reputable housing inspector addressing the issue of what you're asking-

"Does The Seller Need To Fix This?"
https://structuretech1.com/negotiations-after-the-inspection/

"reputable"

Lets take what he wrote, a snippet:

This is a common question I’m asked when I find defects at houses that I inspect, and the answer is always ...

snip

The operative word is DEFECT.

A house built in 1970 without a receptacle in the bathroom is not defective in 2018.

 

[Dustball]

"reputable"

Lets take what he wrote, a snippet:



The operative word is DEFECT.

A house built in 1970 without a receptacle in the bathroom is not defective in 2018.

You left out the last word in that sentence.

This is a common question I’m asked when I find defects at houses that I inspect, and the answer is always no.