Item ‘T’ was changed, at my request, to limit the electrical ‘inspection’ to readily accessible. The ASHI language was NOT adopted.
#5 under T allows you to say that the dead front cover was on and there are no unused openings in the panel. It does NOT give you permission to open a panel.
In Ohio, the interior of a panel cover is NOT allowed to be readily accessible. That is one of the things that I am required to verify. If the interior is not protected and is readily accessible the installation FAILS.
no dog in the hunt & not the way i read the complete electric section that does not have the op diagram
i reprinted the pdf scan for all to copy & paste as needed Ohio SoP 2019 .pdf (2.0 MB)
T. A licensee shall inspect a property’s readily accessible components of the electrical system during a home inspection and report in the home inspection report the licensee’s findings related to all of the following:
I. service drop;
2. service entrance conductors. cables and raceways;
3. service equipment and main disconnects;
4. service grounding; 5. interior parts or components of a service panels and subpanels;
§… conductors;
7. overcurrent protection devices;
8. a representative sample of installed light fixtures, switches and receptacles:
9. ground fault circuit interrupters and arc fault circuit interrupters.
Standards or Practice
I 0. Licensees shall report in the home inspection report the property’s amperage rating service, the location
of main disconnects and subpancls. the presence or absence of any smoke or carbon monoxide alarms and
the predominant branch of circuit wiring method.
U. /\ licensee is not required to inspect during a home inspection or report in a home inspection report anv of
the following as it relates to a property’s electrical system:
remote control devices;
test smoke and carbon monoxide alanns. security systems and other signaling and warning devices:
low voltage wiring systems. components or parts of a system;
ancillary wiring systems, components or parts of a system that are not a part of the primary electrical
power distribution system;
solar, geothennal. wind, and other renewable energy systems;
Licensees are not required to measure the amperage. voltage or impedance or determine the age or type
of smoke or carbon monoxide alann;
test ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCJ) or arc fault circuit interrupters CAFCI);
I was at all the meetings and discussions. The inspector REPORTS on his FINDINGS. There was a lot of discussion on this.
it was changed to readily accessible to match Ohio law.
Fact - the inside of a panel is not readily accessible as defined by NFPA 70 and codified by the State of Ohio. It is not included in a home inspection. If you inspect it and are not certified under RC 3783 then you violate Ohio law.
appears oh rule makers need to get their shittogether
i’d send a request for interpretation (RFI) to my licensing authority & continue by my company policy until answered
or take the approach
“better to stay out of a deal than try to get out of 1”
No skin off my nose, but I read T5 to say the interior parts of a panel are to be inspected. Guess you have to remove the dead front. Hard to see aluminum conductors any other way (T6).
“G) “Readily accessible” means available for visual inspection without requiring a person to move or dismantle personal property, take destructive measures, or take any other action that will involve risk to a person or to the property.”
How does that make any sense?? A licensed electrical contractor can repair the panel, but cannot inspect it?? So they are qualified to do whatever work needs to be done on the inside, but they cant open it first to work on it…
Dipshit is attempting to contrive the description of “readily accessible” in the definition of a home inspection (not the NEC definition) to be a regulatory standard for restricting HIs from performing electrical inspections.
IMO: He has a motive in that he aspires to be subcontracted by home inspectors whom he has duped into believing his crap to perform the electrical inspections. If he can twist the Ohio legislators to actually make it illegal for inspectors to look at electrical equipment he will do so.
He is hostile to the home inspection industry is attempting to harm home inspectors in Ohio for his own gain. He should be banned from these forums and his post treated as SPAM. He also deserves a legal letter or lawsuit from InterNACHI on behalf of Ohio HIs for what he has published on his own website.
Ohio inspectors and InterNACHI need to take action to put this dipshit and his aspirations to bed.
I believe that Ohio is taking a very narrow definition of the word “inspect” in this context to mean AHJ code compliance inspections only. I don’t think inspections other than code compliance approvals fall under this, but Ohio is not my state and I’m not going to invest a ton of time researching and verifying. We have plenty of Ohio inspectors and an InterNACHI legal team who should be looking out for Ohio HI interests.
Let me throw this out again. The OP continues to ignore the opinion set forward. He also now considers himself an authority on the SOP’s of the State and the interpretation of the SOP’s, which is reserved to the members of the Board of Inspectors.
No person shall engage in the practice of electrical inspection in this state unless he is the holder of a certificate of competency as an electrical safety inspector issued under Chapter 3783. of the Revised Code. Any person practicing or offering to practice electrical inspection shall show proof of his certification upon request as provided by rules of the board of building standards.
**
The opinion on home inspectors from the Ohio Board of Building Standards:
“However, if a person holds them self out as a home inspector and offers to perform an inspection of the home and systems but indicates that they will issue a report indicating the state of function, operation or relative hazards, but not refer to code compliance, they would not be in violation of this law”
There is no license for residential (1,2,3 family) electrical work in the State of Ohio. That’s why a Licensed Electrical Contractor (commercial license) can not inspect an electrical installation.
The law is clear. Nothing appears anywhere in Ohio law that gives anyone permission to inspect he inside of an electrical panel except an ESI. If you can find this permission please show me!
The SOPs now go to the Lt. Gov’s office and rules committee and then out to public review. They are still awhile from completing the process.
This information was obtained from the Division of Real Estate today
