Are you wondering if you should get an electrical certificate when buying a house? Of course you should that way you will know the house is electrically up to code.
Obtaining and electrical certificate or electrical inspection report when purchasing a home is a wise decision. This will inform you of any code violations present that may need to be repaired.
Should I Get An Electrical Certificate When Buying A House?
Yes you should get an electrical inspection certificate when buying a house.
Unfortunately this certificate cannot be supplied by a home inspector.
How many inspectors will pick up deficiencies throughout the whole home with many different traits.
This although this will give you a good overall idea of what’s wrong with the property.
This will not give you a specific trade certificate.
To get a specific trade certificate for electrical and you will need to involved a professional.
This would be an inspect authority to come out and do a formal electrical inspection of the premises.
This will include things like in proper connections. It will also include things like improper fuse or breaker sizing.
They will also look at the GFCI protection the smoke detectors within the dwelling and any shocker fire hazards picked up with the electrical.
How Can I Get An Electrical Certificate When Buying A House?
You will need to hire a professional electrician.
The electrician can then pull a proper wiring permit to have the inspection authority come out and look at your home.
This is called a consultation inspection.
Every inspection area is a little bit different as to how the rules apply and how it is properly done.
However in most cases it is all close to the same. Electrician will charge you to come out and bring the inspection of authority with it he or she.
Inspector will then go through in the fine details list and write up a proper inspection report from the inspection authority.
Is This The Same As An Electrical Inspection?
A consultation inspection is a little bit different than an actual electrical inspection.
However electrical inspection is pulled for work being done to the property and inspecting that work only.
A consultation inspection is rated from the inspection authority as a snapshot in time or how the house is doing electrically.
They will simply go through and pick up the deficiency list to describe to you what needs to be done.
So this can be counted as an actual electrical inspection but no consequences to the work.
Will The Seller Let Me In The House To Have It Done?
In most cases yes, the seller will let you book an appointment with the inspection authority to come in and have an electrical inspection done.
If they do not want you to do this than they should raise raise red flags.
For obvious reasons if they do not want you to come in the home.
They will feel that there is electrical work that needs to be done or completed before the sale of the home can take place.
They will not want someone else’s inspector coming in and picking up on all these details.
How Much Is This Going To Cost Me?
The cost by having this procedure done can be a little higher than if you just obtain a normal home inspector.
Firstly you will need to pay your local electrician for his time or her time to come out to the property.
They will most likely want to look at the property before they call in obtaining a permit for the inspection authority to come out to consult.
So your electrician will be looking for any obvious things that they may want to point out to you before they get the inspection authority involved.
They will I need a permit which is at a cost of them which they will pass on charges to you for.
You can expect to pay a few hundred dollars for your electrician .
Then possibly another hundred to 200 $ for the proper inspection authority to come out and look at the property.
Can The Price Of The Inspection Be Deducted From The Sale Price?
It’s up to you whether you would like to have this knocked off the sale of the home.
This would all be done in your sales proposal to to the buyer.
Most times they will tell you to go pound sand as they will not want to pay for these additional cost.
However it is worth your time if you know the sale is going to go through.
Then it will give you peace of mind if the electrical is correct in the home or not.
What Happens If It Fails Inspection?
If the inspection fails it is simply report stating what’s wrong with the property electrically.
Nothing will need to be done although it should be done.
You will then have an electrical certificate from the proper inspection authority stating code violations.
At this point you can then talk to the seller to see who is going to complete this work if at all.
You can use this inspection report to bargain with the seller after you get an estimate from your local electrician.
This way you can see how much the cost of repairs will be.
Most electricians will not do this for the buyer is they will only do it for the seller.
They will not do it for the buyer because of the sale of the home does not go through and the electrician does not get to work.
Expect to pay an extra charge for the electrician to write up an estimate to repair the work off of the inspection report.
Does It Matter If The Home Has Old Wiring?
A lot of times no it does not matter if the house has old wiring.
Providing that the wiring is still in good shape and it is properly fused or on the proper breaker size. Then the inspector will not have any issues.
Just because a home has older wiring as a buyer does not mean you can make the seller replace it for resale.
That would mean that it would be up to you. Providing that the wiring is in good shape it’s still as good today as it was when it was installed.
Remember proper fuse size or breaker protection is the key.
In addition to that GFCI protection or arc fault protection on the circuits can be an added bonus.
Can The Inspection Be Done By A Home Inspector
You can hire a home inspector to do the inspection for you as mentioned in out of their articles and in this article.
The home inspector will give you a blanket list of deficiencies included with pictures and an actual inspection report from their company.
This can be sufficient in the sale or purchase of a home.
This seems to be an excepted method of inspection.
Remember this is not a formal inspection report from your local inspection authority.
This will not count for insurance purposes just the same is it for member of our team as electricians made up an inspection report.
Many times we do this for customers to find out that the insurance companies will not except this. They will ask for an actual qualified inspection authority.