Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
I recently purchased a home. The home inspector did not note in his inspection some electrical issues with our pumphouse. We do not have power to an outlet in the pumphouse and the main pump wiring is exposed and buried directly in the ground without conduit. Repair will require trenching the old lines out and installing new lines in conduit, which will be expensive. Had we known of the issue, we might not have purchased the property. My question is- Do we have legal recourse to take the inspector to small claims court with the intent of having him pay for repairs? Thank you.
1 Answer from Attorneys
I'd be inclined to say that suing the inspector would be futile, for the following reasons:
(1) Home inspector contracts are carefully written by attorneys who are fully familiar with the litigation issues home inspectors are often forced to face......the contracts are full of limitations on liability couched in all kinds of terminology.
(2) Lack of power to an outlet in the pumphouse is not something the inspector would determine during the normal course of a proper inspection. Sure, lack of power to the pump itself is something an inspector should catch ..... but I doubt there is any negligence involved when the inspector fails to stick his neon voltage-checker in every outlet, especially in an outbuilding. (I have a pumphouse on my property ...... it has electric lighting, but I can't recall ever noticing whether there were electric outlets.)
(3) Direct-burial of low-voltage (115/230 volt) cables can be entirely proper......it depends upon the type of cable used. If it is Type UF, it's probably permissible under the Uniform Electrical Code and Underwriters' Lab requirements (UF stands for "underground feeder"). Now, since I'm a lawyer, not an electrical contractor, and I haven't seen your installation, I'd be hesitant to say that this particular direct-burial installation is up-to-code ..... but it might be.
Note the following Web site:
http://www.deanbennett.com/uf-direct-burial-cable.htm
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