Wall Electrical Outlets

[Renegade1LI]

FWIW, I have a NYS home inspectors license & the instructors made it very clear during the course that home inspectors are not code inspectors, I know some who think they are. A home inspection is only a visual observation of the home & it's systems, we don't open walls, check electrical connections, if I feel something isn't right in the report I would refer the buyer to get it checked by a licensed professional. It really is a joke, when I took the course I couldn't believe the others taking it, ex cops, fireman, retired teachers, I think only myself & 2 others were in the building trades, I personally don't have much faith in a home inspection. A house I recently purchased I hired a septic company to inspect, hired a local well driller & had the water sampled the rest I was comfortable with, a home inspector would not have the knowledge to know if these systems were good, they run the water for 5 minutes & check how the bowl flushes. This is just my opinion, yours may vary.

 

[haveissues]

You guys do realize that a home inspection really doesn't have any authority. He can tell you to bring the outlets up to code and you can refuse. Or if they require an licensed electrician, you can refuse that also. All it amounts to is a bargaining tactic when buying a home.

A friend of mine sold a home a few years ago. He wasn't in a hurry to sell it. He got an offer and they had all kinds of issues the inspector found, most stuff you would find in any older home. He was pretty worked up about it telling me all the things he was "required" to repair. I told he to counter offer with a couple of the worst things on the list, or tell them to go away and put the house back on he market. It went back and forth a bit and finally the deal fell through and the house went back on the market. About a week later someone agreed to his price, they disclosed what was on the inspection, the buyer didn't care and bought the place.

I sold a house a couple of years ago and got a list of 10 or 12 things the buyers wanted fixed. I picked 3 or 4 really easy to fix things and they were happy. Had I sold that house a few months later after the beginning of covid I would have not even entertained offers that included inspections.

 

[engineer2]

It really is a joke, when I took the course I couldn't believe the others taking it, ex cops, fireman, retired teachers,

A friend who is a contractor was getting his inspector's license and said the same thing.

When we bought our house the inspector missed some things, but they were hidden. Around here inspectors are taught that if you break it, you pay to fix it. I had amateur wiring behind a suspended ceiling but the inspector was not obligated to pull ceiling panels down.

 

[FMB4]

We've always made it very clear that our listed price is fixed and that no repairs will be made on our $. This has almost always worked well for us. Meanwhile, most Inspectors will let the prospective buyers know if they see anything that is obviously not to code.

 

[mike93lx]

We've always made it very clear that our listed price is fixed and that no repairs will be made on our $. This has almost always worked well for us. Meanwhile, most Inspectors will let the prospective buyers know if they see anything that is obviously not to code.

We all choose the hill to defend.

Personally, the market drives that decision. In a buyer's market, you can turn down all the offers you want

 

[Shiftless]

We got a couple offers from couples and you families that felt like looking back in time to my wife and I when we bought our last house a decade ago. Looking for great schools and a quiet neighborhood.

Unfortunately, the people that sent letters had the lowest offers and emotion won't put money in my bank account, so they lost. Had the amounts been close, it probably would have helped then, but the amount that a couple people were willing to go over asking made the decision easy.

Several years ago I helped my wife’s family sell an inherited home. The realtor announced a date when the offers would be received. There were over 10 offers and several came with those “love letters”. We gave the realtor explicit instructions to hide those letters and not present them. When 10s of thousands of dollars are possibly to be saved with a love letter, do you think that the writers will be 100% honest?

 

[Terry D]

To the OP's question. If you have a 3 prong receptacle installed where there is no ground, then that would be a code violation and probably be caught on a home inspection at the sale of the home. The only way to fix it would be to install a GFCI receptacle or breaker, rewire the circuit or install a 2-prong receptacle.

The thing with having a 3-prong receptacle on a ungrounded system is that nothing bad is going to happen. Its not going to start a fire, its not going to get you shocked. Its a mental thing. When someone plugs something into a 3-prong receptacle, its in their mind that equipment is grounded and they are safe. If there is no ground in the system, it doesn't matter what kind of receptacle is in there because there is no ground

 

[nadogail]

Having been called by a "Home Inspector" to fix the wiring n his own home; I showed him that he was not competent to use his own test equipment; and I gave him a lesson. I billed him for a minimum service.

 

[Jim greengo]

Replacing a current 2 prong receptacle with a new 2 prong is silly, IMO. If they have to be replaced, put in a 3 prong.

That said, if you are selling it, I would leave them alone and let it be a negotiating point in the inspection, if one is even done. I sold a house last year and most of the offers waived the inspection completely. The buyers didn't even have one done for informational purposes only.

That only works if there is a way to ground them,or you want to add a gfi to protect the outlets.

 

[Jim greengo]

Having been called by a "Home Inspector" to fix the wiring n his own home; I showed him that he was not competent to use his own test equipment; and I gave him a lesson. I billed him for a minimum service.

Here in nebraska home inspectors are unlicensed hacks in my experiance.

 

[alfredeneuman]

100% of home inspectors will flag it as not meeting code (if they are real inspectors). That doesn't mean you have to upgrade it. Inspectors will never go back to research old codes.

They proudly state that they are not "Code Inspectors" to get out of liability for wrong calls.

 

[Jim greengo]

They proudly state that they are not "Code Inspectors" to get out of liability for wrong calls.

Most of them wouldn't know a real code violation if you hit them in the head with the NEC book.
But they're really proud of their punctuation on their fancy reports,and theyll let you know it!

 

[Rich M.]

Not funny at all, I'm totally sold on the "back wire" style screw connections, they're great

Not funny at all, I'm totally sold on the "back wire" style screw connections, they're great.

Not meant to be funny like in haha. It was that I chose the same receptacles, so more of great minds think alike.

 

[reader2580]

We've always made it very clear that our listed price is fixed and that no repairs will be made on our $. This has almost always worked well for us. Meanwhile, most Inspectors will let the prospective buyers know if they see anything that is obviously not to code.

I hope inspectors aren't using modern code for an old house to say if something is a code violation. If a house is 100 years old then the electrical only has to meet the code at the time the wiring was last touched. Not having GFCI protected receptacles could be noted as a safety issue, but it isn't a code violation if the circuit was installed before GFCI protection was required.

No home seller can be expected to bring a house fully up to the 2020 NEC (or whatever year is current in your area) when the house is being sold.

 

[Jim greengo]

In omaha anyway city inspectors are required to hold atleast a journeyman license for the trade they are inspecting,I remind home inspectors this anytime they try and get a god complex with me.
I also do the same thing with code enforcement inspectors when they try and act like electrical/hvac or plumbing inspectors.
I tell them all they are there to look at is windows and trash.

 

[dcg9381]

But in recent years, the NEC has required that replacement receptacles be tamper resistant depending upon where it is located.

Combo AFI/GFI breakers and "tamper resistant" receptacles = worst things ever.

You're selling into the right market now, OP.

I've seen home inspectors come into older homes all the time and say "not up to 201X NEC". No ****. House was built prior to that.

"home inspection" for me - it's kinda nutty. We have full time electricians that aren't up on current code. Expecting one human to come into your home and find all the construction, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical defects - I think that's a very "ambitious" job... Not to say that based on above it's not keeping some buyers from big mistakes.

I never tell an inspector how to do his or her job, usually I'm on the "money losing" side of the inspection. When I am on the other side, I often hand them a list of things to "check out".