Home Inspectors Banned From Inspecting Electrical Work

infinity

infinity

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Recenting in Rhode Island a law was passed the prohibits home inspectors from inspecting the electrical systems during a home inspection. With the prodding of the IBEW the state enacted a law that does not allow home inspectors perform any type of testing or observations be it to insert testers into receptacles or remove panel covers. These electrical inspections must now be done by a licensed electrician. I would expect other states to add similar laws to their books.
 
infinity said:
Recenting in Rhode Island a law was passed the prohibits home inspectors from inspecting the electrical systems during a home inspection. With the prodding of the IBEW the state enacted a law that does not allow home inspectors perform any type of testing or observations be it to insert testers into receptacles or remove panel covers. These electrical inspections must now be done by a licensed electrician. I would expect other states to add similar laws to their books.
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ModbusMan said:
Mrr... that's going a little too far, Rhode Island. Sure, most inspectors probably wouldn't recognize arc flash from Flash Gordon while opening a panel, but there's no reason a HI can't safely plug in a three-bulb socket tester, see a red or missing light, and say, "That ain't right."
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I agree. If the HI's there are so bad that they cannot plug in a tester or remove a panel cover then the state should require further home inspector training. The motivation for this law is fairly obvious. It's designed to get more work for licensed electricians in the state.
 
Plugging in an analyzer or looking for broken wall plates etc... does seem overly restrictive but the way I see it is, the inspection agency could hire or partner with an electrician for that part of the inspection. If the HI does find something questionable he would have to recommend the issue be followed up with an electrician anyways.
 
Rhode Island always protects the electrical license. As an A license holder in the state, I love what they do compared to my home state. Testing a receptacle is one thing, but a home inspector is not licensed to open an electrical panel and has no business touching it.
 
infinity said:
Recenting in Rhode Island a law was passed the prohibits home inspectors from inspecting the electrical systems during a home inspection. With the prodding of the IBEW the state enacted a law that does not allow home inspectors perform any type of testing or observations be it to insert testers into receptacles or remove panel covers. These electrical inspections must now be done by a licensed electrician. I would expect other states to add similar laws to their books.
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When my sister was selling her vacation home a home inspector wrote up several invalid electrical violations. The inspection occurred on a hot summer day where the house was closed up all summer and he turned on all of the baseboard heaters for halve a hour and wrote up the panel was bad because the outside of closed cover was very warm. Told my sister to ask what kind of FLIR camera did he use, none, not even a cheap $100 hand IR temperature hand held gun. He didn't even have that so it passed his inspection. Also write up that every circuit breaker were too warm. House had to be close to 100 degrees inside. Told her to tell him that even if a circuit breaker us off it will be warm in a hit environment.
 
Steve16 said:
Testing a receptacle is one thing, but a home inspector is not licensed to open an electrical panel and has no business touching it.
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In every other state an HI can look inside of an electrical panel. With the proper training there is nothing wrong with that. The problem is that in many places these inspectors are unregulated but in fairness I wouldn't lump them all together. I've seen plenty of lousy electricians over the years too. IR scanning is a big problem with the HI industry due to the lack of training and the availability of cheap IR equipment.
 
infinity said:
I agree. If the HI's there are so bad that they cannot plug in a tester or remove a panel cover then the state should require further home inspector training. The motivation for this law is fairly obvious. It's designed to get more work for licensed electricians in the state.
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What about PEs, can't PEs becoming home inspectors due to their license as well?
 
infinity said:
IR scanning is a big problem with the HI industry due to the lack of training and the availability of cheap IR equipment.
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Yup... we picked up a couple of FLIR TG165 scanners (roughly $500 at the time) several years ago as a way for our facility engineers to spot cross-threaded breaker bolts while installing or decommissioning customer power. Turned out to be pretty useless for that because reflection off the bus bars generally messed with the view. But they have come in handy for figuring out where that hot draft is coming from while walking down the cold aisles.
 
infinity said:
Recenting in Rhode Island a law was passed the prohibits home inspectors from inspecting the electrical systems during a home inspection. With the prodding of the IBEW the state enacted a law that does not allow home inspectors perform any type of testing or observations be it to insert testers into receptacles or remove panel covers. These electrical inspections must now be done by a licensed electrician. I would expect other states to add similar laws to their books.
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I support that 100% . I’m in Mass and I’d be surprised if we did not follow suit in the near future !
 
infinity said:
In every other state an HI can look inside of an electrical panel. With the proper training there is nothing wrong with that. The problem is that in many places these inspectors are unregulated but in fairness I wouldn't lump them all together. I've seen plenty of lousy electricians over the years too. IR scanning is a big problem with the HI industry due to the lack of training and the availability of cheap IR equipment.
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I never understood why a HI can open a panel but can't, or won't, take the cover off a receptacle or switch.
 
infinity said:
Recenting in Rhode Island a law was passed the prohibits home inspectors from inspecting the electrical systems during a home inspection. With the prodding of the IBEW the state enacted a law that does not allow home inspectors perform any type of testing or observations be it to insert testers into receptacles or remove panel covers. These electrical inspections must now be done by a licensed electrician. I would expect other states to add similar laws to their books.
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Although I will say this . The state of Rhode Island is very strict when it comes to performing electrical work in their state and will only issue permits to master electricians and require that every apprentice becomes a licensed apprentice with the state and will issue fines to apprentices that aren’t registered with the state . Mass has a state apprenticeship program but apprentices are required to register and obtain an actual license .
 
Little Bill said:
I never understood why a HI can open a panel but can't, or won't, take the cover off a receptacle or switch.
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Probably because a potential home buyer would then wonder why the HI isn't taking the covers off every single one. That, and unless they pull the device out, it's unlikely they'll actually see anything useful.
 
Little Bill said:
I never understood why a HI can open a panel but can't, or won't, take the cover off a receptacle or switch.
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Same here . They’ll assume the risk of the entire panel when it’s exposed but but not a receptacle outlet or switch ? Makes no sense.
Their certification should not give them the ability to provide any type of diagnosis of any electrical system anyways . Any and all inspections of electrical installations should be done by licensed professionals


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Jaybone812 said:
Their certification should not give them the ability to provide any type of diagnosis of any electrical system anyways . Any and all inspections of electrical installations should be done by licensed professionals
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Are you saying that not one home inspector is qualified to look in an electrical panel?
 
Little Bill said:
I never understood why a HI can open a panel but can't, or won't, take the cover off a receptacle or switch.
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I think it has more to do with liabilities / damages and if they can fix it.

Pulling a panel cover off is typically safer and less likely to cause damage to the terminations in the board. Even with a cluster of wires, you can usually get a cover off and back on without damaging things.

Pulling a switch or receptacle out of an outlet requires you to pull the device out, exposing you to wiring that could be come lose and require you to retighten a landing which they might not be "licensed" to do. Then the liability if the electrician says the HI messed it up when he pulled the switch/receptacle out.

The cover itself, I don't understand entirely. As someone said, it just might not be worth it. You won't see much of the splices or termination.
 
Elect117 said:
The cover itself, I don't understand entirely. As someone said, it just might not be worth it. You won't see much of the splices or termination.
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You would hope to not see anything interesting under the cover, but then there's the excessive shrinkback on aluminum wire out west, and that's something even a monkey could hopefully spot and flag for professional remediation.
 
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