You get to meet some H3LL’S Angels… 
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Yep, and here is another good one from an agent/seller - the water heater and AC are behind these cabinets. Now I’m skinny but just haven’t figured out how to contort my flesh through a 4" gap. The second and third pics are the electrical panel. I couldn’t even open the panel door due to a shoe hanger and another of these cabinets. I did manage to get everything inspected but had a strong urge which I didn’t act on to give this supposed agent a piece of my mind. Then, to top it off she claims I broke one of her blinds - personally I think it was broken and she purposely left them closed knowing I had to inspect the windows. Threw her a check for $75 to have her blind repaired and told her to have a nice life. More reason I will be taking the advice of others here and getting a body cam.
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Yes, once they clear out the flammable liquids and give me access to the panel. If the panel is not readily accessible for inspection, I did not inspect it and reported as such as to why. I’ll go back later at an additional charge.
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Glad to see some of us agree. Not that it matters in that “you do you” but my liability balls aren’t as big as others…
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Too little too late 
IMO, it depends on how well do you want to serve your clients. Moving a few gas cans and a bag of charcoal out of my way isn’t a big deal to me. I would have set them outside out of direct sunlight and let the room air out. No matter what condition of the rest of the house, I always seem to find at least one minor defect in the panel.
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That’s why I’m glad 95% of panels are on the exterior here.
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I always try to make an effort to access the service or distribution panels as I am generally more concerned what is going on inside the panel. If access to the electrical panel was obstructed or inaccessible I may include something like this.
“At time of the inspection the (service or distribution) panel at this residence did not have the recommended workspace clearance of thirty-six inches of clear space to safely and properly service and or facilitate an emergency. Recommend corrective repair as necessary in accordance with current standard requirements for improved safety.”
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It looks bad! This a NEC Violation. and I recommend to note It in your report as well as going out of your way to provide an ‘educational TIP’. There is a reason why the Electrical Panels should be ready accessible and is no to clear the path for the Home Inspector. Is more
related to an emergency situation that will not provide advance notice, like you properly did prior to arriving to the dwelling. An electrical fire 
will not ‘email the owner’ about an scheduled occurrence. Furthermore, the fire department will document this during the CSI investigation and his Insurance Company will not honor a disastrous event claim. In a nut shell, “ It is home owner smart to relocate those gas cans and grill
charcoal bags”. With this said, I will carefully remove the obstacles under direct supervision and monitoring of the client, realtor and the selling owner, the dog and the cat, and then complete the very important Home Inspection electric system main electrical panel…! 
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I don’t do housekeeping for client’s. Not only is that panel in the OP obstructed, but it’s an explosion waiting to happen. Washers and dryers contain timers and relays that arc in use. This is why gas cans are no longer vented. People have no good sense when it comes to storage of flammable liquids. I don’t open panels that are inaccessible.
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Brian/Gregg/Ryan… If it is OK with you all, I will like to use your pictures to illustrate the “Do’s n Don’ts” in a Power Point presentation I am getting ready to share with some Realtors and to add them to my website gallery of horrors…!
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Well explained! Bob… 
Pedro, sure I’ll even send you the original pics if needed. Just to further my opinion on this, I agree with everything said here and all opinions. Normally I would likely go the extra step for my clients or make a call to someone to address the issue while I’m performing the inspection. However, as of late it seems every inspection I do for these so-called agent/sellers is met with some form of obstacle. As an agent, they should know better and it just tweaks me someone in the profession can be that stupid or difficult. What’s even worse, they run out and leave you at the home by yourself. I especially get annoyed, when there is something odd I can’t figure out and no one is there to answer a question. One of my favorites recently was attempting to inspect a heating/AC just to be met with a thermostat that is password protected - A true WTF moment.
The picture doesn’t show this one from today well, but the right hand screws on the main panel are actually “behind” the cabinet if you will. I had to go find my tool bag to get my stubby screwdriver to get those ones out. And of course those are the fine thread ones that are about 2" long, lol.
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Brutal, looks like the flat-head slotted screws. Good find though. 
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When I got to the inspection (occupied house) the realtor was super nice and asked if we needed anything and I told her we just need access to the attic, crawl space and electrical panel so she went into the pantry to move all the cereal boxes out if the way so we could inspect inside the electrical panel. This is what we found.
In addition to being blocked by shelving, the panel had been painted-shut.
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How about attic hatches in closets?
I know I am about to rain down all types of crap onto the clothing, shoes etc.
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I go into those. 10.75 x 11.5 inch hatch in the closet ceiling of this old house
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