A home inspection was done on my home in preparation for a sale. The inspector reported "the electrical service entrance wire is in direct contact with the wood fascia and should be repaired."
The service wire has a strain relief on the facia and goes through a hole in the facia board on is way to the service panel in the basement.
My home was built in 1965. It appears this service wire routing was common practice then, I expect building codes have changed, but that older homes are grand fathered. What advice would you give on the necessity of changing this?
That sounds strange. In '65, I would've expected NEC to require some sort of conduit from the weatherhead to the fuse / breaker box. Where the heck is the meter in this setup?
As you say, if it met code when built, you're not required bring it up to code. If you're just moving out, I wouldn't mess with it.
I don't put a lot of faith in home inspectors. Their experience and qualifications can vary. If this becomes an issue with the attorneys and buyer I suggest that you have a qualified electrician look at it or perhaps your local electrical inspector.
Tell him it passed code in '65, then tell him to go fly a kite. From this post and you other post in regard to the vent, this guy does not have a clue! Tell the buyer the home is sold "as is". If they have a problem with it they can get it repaired themselves.
Home inspectors are generally a joke. Most references I have seen to home inspection, that I have seen, indicate that the inspector can not even tie his own shoes, but yet a home sale will pass or die on his report. Greg
This falls under the heading of "What could be done to this house to make it brand new and up to current code standards". I had a homeowner call me in to do an estimate on installing grounded circuits and 3 prong outlets throughout an 80 year old home to comply with the home inspection checklist. When he found out that it would require rewiring the entire house and installing a new service, he decided against compliance with that line item.
The inspector is probably a pimpley-faced kid who has never seen SE cable run without a conduit, or someone who just took a weekend course and has no practical experience.
I'm not sure if it would pass inspection now, but I think it *might* if it had a proper service cap. Tell the inspector to get F'ed, and tell the buyers it only has to meet code for when it was installed in the
60's and if they want to redo they can do so at their own expense after they buy the house. Whoever paid the inspector (probably the buyer) got screwed; you might want to helpfully tell them that.
Bob Service Caps are not required by the US NEC. It specifically allows the installation of type SE service cable by forming it into a gooseneck.
230.54 Overhead Service Locations. (B) Service Cable Equipped with Raintight Service Head or Gooseneck. Service cables shall be equipped with a raintight service head. Exception: Type SE cable shall be permitted to be formed in a gooseneck and taped with a self-sealing weather-resistant thermoplastic.
I think you are all missing the point here. The inspection and associated inspection contingency clause give the buyer the right to walk away from the offer if more than $X (typically $250 in our area) in issues are found during inspection.
Basically, anything an inpsector finds (and they always find something) can be used either as grounds for walking away from the deal or trying to negotiate a price concession.
If the local market conditions in general and the price you set on your house in particular are such that you want to sell more than buyers want to buy then it doesn't matter whether the inspector is right or not. You may lose the sale if you don't accomodate the buyer. On the other hand, if conditions favor the seller, then hang tough since either the buyer will accept the sale as-is or you can move on to the next eager buyer.
The point is that it has nothing to do with right vs. wrong and everything to do with negotiations and the relative buyer vs. seller power.
As an FYI, sale of our condo just fell through because based on the results of the inpsection, the buyer wanted the following:
Replace all the windows (condo has beautiful wood double hung windows that are 70 yrs old and therefore a little loose)
Upgrade electrical service to 200A (for a condo!) from current 60A
Replace *all* outlets with GFI !?
Fix broken radiators (which actually work, but inspector didn't feel heat on them on the Spring day he tested them)
Run a dedicated outlet for refrigerator
In the end it didn't matter who was right or wrong. We were unwilling to meet the conditions since we thought we could do better, so buyer walked.
The local farm store sells service caps made specifically for type SE cable -- it looks like they are mainly to keep the rain out of the hole in the wall where the cable passes thru. The electrical code probably doesn't care, but I would want something to keep the rain out (perhaps locating the thru hole up near the soffit where it's protected and using electrical putty would be enough)
My point was that the inspector (like most but not all home inspectors) was an idiot who collected a big fee to take a dump. Then someone has to clean up the mess as a condition of the sale.
True enough, I guess it depends on how bad you want to sell the home. To bad the home inspector is an idiot, and a sale will hinge on his findings. Negotiate, or tell them the house is sold "as is". I get a kick out of it when a buyer wants something repaired before they buy a home. I would probably agree with the inspectors findings, and negotiate the price down slightly. Why bother to fix it. If the seller walks, another will come along and the next home inspector will probably miss what the first saw, and find some other made up problem.
Too many people get their hearts involved in a home sale. Agree on a price, or don't. It is that simple. After we made the first offer on our house we withdrew a the first offer we had made, and gave a new offer that was $5000 less! The seller had not even said yes or no to the higher offer. I just found out something that made the home worth less in my mind. Of course the seller called me, he was all freaked out! I told him to accept the offer or let it go! After all was said and done, I raised my offer $500 and it was accepted! Saved myself $4500 on the deal. Buying or selling you need to be ready to walk away if the deal is not right. Greg
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.