I just realized there was many more pages to read before making my above post. Oh well
But after reading some of the post here, I too have had problems in the past with some of the requirements that have been posted.
Here is some of what I have learned in fighting some of this
Article 9 section 21 of the United States Constitution will block all requirements of upgrading anything that was code at the time of installation or manufacture. "No Post Facto Laws Shall Ever Be Written"
Inspector's can only cross this line if a change of occupancy was issued or if your state law has a code to require correction of a violation if it is imperative to life/safety, and in commercial, where violations can be seen that didn't meet code at the time it was done.
in residential its kind of a different ball game, as with the above article 9, section 21, you can add what is called the log cabin law which allows homeowners to do there own work, which would make this work legal which would in turn would be protected by the article 9 section 21 again. This would stop an inspector looking at any work other than what an EC did under a permit. and the homeowners work could not be cited as a violation.
I have never seen any requirement for a homeowner to have inspections when under the log cabin law. at least not in the few states I have looked this up.
So basically it is up to a homeowner if they want to live a dangerous life or not.
car racers do, sky divers do, and many more life styles that are dangerous, but it's there choice.
I'm not a lawyer but I have had to deal with being the in between guy all to often in cases like this and thanks to a very good law professor at VU who helped me with what laws to use to deal with this kind of stuff has gone a long ways with bringing both the inspectors and home owners to agreements they both can live with. around here it was getting way out of hand.