Originally Posted By: wdecker
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Russ;
You said that you wanted to understand the HI point of view. Maybe this will helps.
I work in a state where HIs are required to be state licensed, but electricians are not. Just the opposite, I would think, of Georgia.
Our state HI law says that home inspectors are supposed to call out anything that is a 'safety hazard'. We do not inspect to code for 2 reasons:
1) We are not code inspectors. That is the resonsibility of the local AHJ. In fact, if we do quote code, we can be opeing ourselves up to increased liability. Also, remember that 'codes' are a bare minimum standard, varies from village to village areound here and is more of a political standard than a technical one.
2) Something can be in complete complience with code (grandfathered) but still be a safety hazard. A house built ing the 70s that does not, and is not required by local code, to have GFCI protection meets code. But, is it safe? Would you live in a house where the bathroom outlets are GFCI protected? In this state, if I see such a situation, or bedrooms that are not AFCI protected, and do not call them out (regardless of code) and someone gets hurt, I can, and will, be held liable.
I have had a number of electricians, hired to sellers to evaluate my call outs, call me and tell me that something is up to code. I ask them if it is safe. They, usually, do not seem to understand the question. See my point. Electricans and home inspectors work in two different worlds.
Around here, we have many, newly built, McMansions, houses of 5,500 SF and over that were built from tear downs. It is common to find a 15 amp outlet that has a wire run of over 100 feet and uses 14 guage wire. What usually happens is that such an outlet will read as having 10 to 20% voltage drop at 12 amps, a violation of the NEC (but not necessarily the local code). Obviously, the 'electrician' (usually some shlub off the street that the GC hired to pull wire) should have run 12 AWG instead of 14 becasue of the run length. But the don't. Is this an acceptable situation according to code? How about according to safety?
Hope this helps you. Thanks for joining in and I would welcome any comments.
How about you my Friend? 
I’m in Towns Co. Looks like you’re in Cleveland,pretty close there Bud.