Will -
I don’t let myself get pulled into meaningless arguments OR peeing contests / ESPECIALLY with anyone not my customer. Depending on MY mood and FREE time, I might say:
I’m sorry, I was pointing out a safety concern to my customer. I believe you’re talking code … Have you not read the real estate contract BECAUSE if you had, I DO NOT remember it saying this was a code inspection. ARE you new at this OR have they changed the contracts??
OR I might simply say … This is NOT a code inspection , you seem confused about the purpose of the inspection. MANY things (like lead paint, asbestos, no smoke detectors, etc) WERE acceptable 35 years ago that are NOW considered a concern. IF I understand you correctly as GOING down on RECORD as saying this ******* is NOT a safety concern; will NEVER be a SAFETY concern to MY customer; AND you agree to take FULL financial responsibility for MY customer if it harms THEM … Is that what you’re saying.
WE have been way to polite over the years … SLAM the door on their nuts / YOU are the expert in this NOT them.
OR for your customer you might say …
FYI - During the course of an inspection, we may comment on conditions that have the potential to be safety concerns or that are not installed correctly. Often the owner or a real estate agent is confused by our comments, because this [FONT=Arial][size=2]condition may have been present for years and has never been harmful to anyone. [/size][/FONT]We sometimes hear owners, agents, or even a buyer say they called the utility company, a contractor or a local code inspector and were told that the installation of what we had talked about is OK because it was like that when it was built - so its “grandfathered”.
[FONT=Arial][size=2][size=3]If it is the original 15, 20, 30 or 40 year old system or component, they may [/size][/size][/FONT]be technically correct. An older system or component may be “grandfathered” by building code authorities. However, that does not prevent it from being a safety concern OR make it a correct installation by current standards. If you asked the same person the question - is this a safety issue and installed correctly - you would often get a whole different answer than “its grandfathered because it met the building code when it was built”.
If however the component or system in question has been changed out, added or installed in recent years it is often required by most code departments to: (a) have been installed with a permit, (b) to have been inspected by the code department, and © the new installation would need to meet current safety standards and proper installation practices. Now that you have the information we’ve provided, you can make your own decision as to the direction you intend to take - BUY / NO BUY