Electrical inspection for insurance

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J.P.

Senior Member
Location
United States
I got sent yesterday morning to go look at a small motels electrical system. The motel needed an electrical inspection for insurance purposes. Changing companies or buying to burn down and collect I don't know.

I'll post pics of what I saw in the first room we looked at.

The place is old and needs to be at the very least a new service and new circuits, new devices and fixtures and new walls and a new roof and a new parking lot........

The owner was a Indian ( red dot ) fellow. He seemed a bit disappointed when I wouldn't give him a clean bill of health on his motel.
Some of the light switches were in good shape:)
 

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mgookin

Senior Member
Location
Fort Myers, FL
It's my experience that on those inspections the insurance company just wants to know if there are buss fuses or modern breakers, notation about integrity of the ground rod connection, type of wiring, whether receptacles are grounded, etc.

They're not looking for quality of workmanship, compliance with latest & greatest code, etc.
 

suemarkp

Senior Member
Location
Kent, WA
Occupation
Retired Engineer
Depending on where you are, they may care about the FP Stablock breaker. Makes a good thing to blame if the building burns down.
 

J.P.

Senior Member
Location
United States
No to any and all grounding. No to gfci's outside. No to covers on outside receps.

Yes to 18ga lamp cord powering security lighting, somebody just routed it through the panel door and left it open a bit......

Yes to oxided connections and loose lugs showing signs of some arcing.
yes to very full powerstrips with the tv, fridge and microwave plugged into the same one.

No to a local inspector in that little town I guess.
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
The way I see this kind of thing is this. They pay me by the hour.

Go take a look, take good notes, maybe some photos, go back to the shop, do whatever research you need to do, and write a report.

I have had to do this kind of thing a few times. I do not especially like getting in the middle of this kind of thing, but sometimes one gets tasked with doing things one does not like.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
It's my experience that on those inspections the insurance company just wants to know if there are buss fuses or modern breakers, notation about integrity of the ground rod connection, type of wiring, whether receptacles are grounded, etc.

They're not looking for quality of workmanship, compliance with latest & greatest code, etc.
And IMO if that is all they are looking for then they either need to specify what to look for or send their own guy to inspect. If I am inspecting it they are going to be told what I find wrong, especially if I have no guidelines of what to be looking for, which I have never had any specific guidelines of what to look for on such inspections. I will usually give a report of what I found, usually will mention I can not verify what is concealed, and will mention items that maybe would have been compliant at the time of installation but codes have changed and that it would not be compliant if installed today, and let them decide from there what that should mean.
 

growler

Senior Member
Location
Atlanta,GA
I got sent yesterday morning to go look at a small motels electrical system. The motel needed an electrical inspection for insurance purposes. Changing companies or buying to burn down and collect I don't know.
:)

they either need to specify what to look for or send their own guy to inspect.


In my experience insurance companies do have their own people they can/do send out to inspect these types of businesses.

I'm "guessing" that this place was turned down for coverage and the owner wants a second opinion.

I agree that you should always limit the scope of the inspection and have a stated inspection criteria. Give a list of what was inspected , method of inspection ( usually visual ) and what was found.
 

steve66

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
Engineer
In my experience insurance companies do have their own people they can/do send out to inspect these types of businesses.

I'm "guessing" that this place was turned down for coverage and the owner wants a second opinion.

I agree that you should always limit the scope of the inspection and have a stated inspection criteria. Give a list of what was inspected , method of inspection ( usually visual ) and what was found.

I would agree. And I would avoid saying anything like "It passes" or "It doesn't pass." That's up to the insurance company to decide. Just write what you see and let them decide the end result.
 

J.P.

Senior Member
Location
United States
My helper and I walked around we took off a few covers/ boxes and devices. Took 40 picts of different things. The owner called while I was there and really wanted me to say everything was ok. I told him I was there to make an evaluation and it wasn't my call if my boss wanted to sign off on it or not.

I don't know the liability of something like this if it all burns down tomorrow. There is the existing and compliant when it was built aspect. but this was more slipshod and IMO dangerous.

It's not my call though. I am happy either way. I was just surprised at what I saw.

I am surprised by what I see a lot of the time when we get called to jobs that other companies did. Some are really neat and easy to follow some leave you shaking your head.

Today I went to a dollar general on a tripping breaker call. The 20A S.P. breaker turned out to have 2 wires hooked to it. One drew 16A the other drew 11A.
There were empty slots for breakers in the panel. Easy fix. But why do that in the first place.

Somebody had added a water heater above a bathroom and just grabbed a random breaker and doubled up. Drove 90 miles one way for that one. I was pretty cold this morning anyway so inside work and a long drive were nice....We get lots of calls for stuff like this, but usually they don't want to pay you to drive, this one did.
 
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