Quote:
Originally Posted by Biggd
On an old building like that I would think they would make him, at the very least, upgrade the electrical throughout the house to code otherwise it would be a fire trap. If they didn't and, god forbid, someone died in a fire, the town would get sued.
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Once again this is all tied up in grey area of the laws. I don't disagree with what you are saying. But it really come down to how the work is defined. And when you look at electrical, what should drive the need to update to code.....
So many things have changed over the years in regards to electrical code, even a building or home built 20 years ago is not up to code.
In my experience, when it comes to needing to bring electrical up to code, it is driven more from an insurance stand point then one the inspectors making the update happen as part of a renovation, when a renovation happens, the inspectors only need be worried about the scope of the project being up to code. The could make them install an up to date circuit breaker box, but if they didn't touch a circuit and all they are doing is hooking it to the new circuit breaker box, that is all they are going to be concerned about.....
To further expand on this, you know if they started tearing up the sheet rock to worry about a completely up to code electrical and plumbing system, that to be up to code, they would likely need to update the floor joists, wall studs, and roof rafters, because none of those are up to code either.....
Bringing a house up to code is an ambiguous statement.... From your point, yes there are certain things that must be done to make sure that the house is safe..... but it doesn't mean it has to be up to code...... because to be up to code, the only way to accomplish such a thing is to tear down and start over.....