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Old 08-08-2008, 02:54 PM
 
134 posts, read 605,339 times
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A home inspection found some items during an inspection that needed to be corrected/repaired. I have found out that the homeowner did these things himself. (installing CFCI for one) I'm not sure how comfortable I am that someone other an electrician has done these repairs so that they can save themselves money. Is this something I should even make a fuss about? Anything electrical concerns me. Advice please.
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Old 08-08-2008, 03:09 PM
 
134 posts, read 605,339 times
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If we pay the inspector more money to go back out and re-check items then I guess. In his report it states to be done by a professional electrician. Is this making an issue a whole lot over nothing?
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Old 08-08-2008, 03:37 PM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pearljammer View Post
If we pay the inspector more money to go back out and re-check items then I guess. In his report it states to be done by a professional electrician. Is this making an issue a whole lot over nothing?
If the inspector finds nothing wrong, and the work was done appropriately, then I don't see a problem. If it wasn't done to code -- and maybe you need to have an actual electrician look at the work -- or if a permit needed to be pulled and wasn't, then I think you'd have something to discuss with the seller.

What electrical things were needed to be done? If installing a GFCI outlet (I assume that's what you mean by "CFCI") is the most complicated, I wouldn't be too concerned; that seems pretty straightforward.
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Old 08-08-2008, 03:41 PM
 
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Okay, thanks all!
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Old 08-08-2008, 03:50 PM
 
Location: Fuquay-Varina
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All electrical work MUST be done by a licensed electrician with one exception; a homeowner can do the electrical work, but only if the house is NOT on the market and they plan on living there for 2 years. With that said, installing a gfci is an easy task so I would not worry too much.
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Old 08-08-2008, 03:51 PM
 
134 posts, read 605,339 times
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The repair request says GFI receptable, junction boxes, fittings, etc to be corrected by licensed electrician. After we initialed and sent to them. They then crossed out the "licensed electrician" part, initialed and sent back saying work was done by seller. My concern I guess is we're buying it and if it wasn't done properly then it's going to be our problem for us later right? I guess that's my concern and want to cover our own butts.
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Old 08-08-2008, 04:16 PM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
1,105 posts, read 2,725,211 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sacredgrooves View Post
All electrical work MUST be done by a licensed electrician with one exception; a homeowner can do the electrical work, but only if the house is NOT on the market and they plan on living there for 2 years. With that said, installing a gfci is an easy task so I would not worry too much.
Found the law, although there's no "two years" requirement (unless that's something from case law); the applicable statute states a property owner can do electrical work upon his own property only when "such property is not intended at the time for rent, lease, or sale". G.S. 87-43.1. So, it appears this work was illegal. Query whether I broke the law by having my brother-in-law install dimmer switches (and had a friend fix a short that my brother-in-law introduced)...

Sorry for the aside, but I'd definitely bring it to the attention of the seller or his agent. Even if the sales contract allowed him to do the work himself, it was illegal for him to do it himself. At the very least, I'd insist that the seller pay for an electrician to look at the work to make sure it was done properly. Should still be cheaper for the seller than having the electrician do the work.
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Old 08-08-2008, 05:36 PM
 
134 posts, read 605,339 times
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Well, they aren't being nice about it. Apparantly the agent didn't even know he was going to do repairs himself until after he'd done them. They say they aren't paying for an electrician and the choice was either fix it or not. They chose to fix only doing it themselves. That website was great by the way. Thank you geoff, I would have never thought to look somewhere like that for any information.
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Old 08-09-2008, 03:46 PM
 
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If the person knows what they are doing it should be fine. It would be nice to know if the person had ever worked as an electrician or aprentice at any point in his life. I've been one for the past ten years. I've come across work done by homeowners that looks like they had no friggin clue what they were doing and on the other hand I've seen homeowner electrical repairs that's okay and meets code. If all he did was replace a GFI, that is'nt very difficult at all (for most people)
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Old 08-09-2008, 04:26 PM
 
Location: Beautiful Raleigh, NC
532 posts, read 2,838,046 times
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Pearljammer, we were in a similar situation where the inspector found electrical deficits. Our wonderful realtor recommended that we require a "licensed electrician" language in the offer. The sellers obliged and provided us with the evidence that this person performed the work. I think this is invaluable as the electrician "guarantees" that his work was done properly. If we have any issues we'd contact him. We've spoken with him about doing some other things for us and know his hourly rate is not much. It's a shame the seller won't make this final investment to remedy this. Why would they risk losing a perfectly good offer over a little coin.
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