Electrical Panel Help Needed

last month

I hope you can answer a question. My friend is trying to sell her home that was built in 1963; they put the fuse box in the main bedroom closet. When she purchased it in 1998, there was no mention of upgrading or relocating the box. Now that she is selling it, the buyer's inspector said she had to replace the box with breakers. Ok, no big deal, the work was done. Now, the walk-through inspector said it needs to be relocated the the laundry room or garage. This could cost her as much as $10k. Wouldn't she be "grandfathered" in? She didn't put the box there, the builders did. Now the buyer wants to back out. Please advise someone. Thank you.

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Comments (4)

PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last month
I can't help but home inspectors are now covering every eventuality possible to cover their butts at least where I live. Call the city inspector and find out exactly what needs to done .then she will know what it is . The walk trhough inspector is not who makes the rules . We had one who listed things that could happen 20 yrs from now and almost scared our buyer away too.
jgsg94
Original Author
last month
Thank you for your response. Nothing worse than someone scarring a single working mom who is not sure what to do.
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katinparadise
last month
I agree with Patricia. Unless the buyer is getting an FHA loan and it was the inspector for FHA that said the box needed to be relocated, there's no reason to take his word for it. FHA inspectors have sticter guidelines they have to follow. Having the code officer for the city take a look will give her the answer as to whether or not it's to code.
3onthetree
last month
There is no code that an electrical panel has to be in a Laundry Room or Garage. Some houses have neither of those rooms, so . . . .

What does apply is NEC in the U.S., which states that a panel must have open clearance around them with specific dimensions. So they cannot be installed in a clothes closet.

Without knowing anything about your friend's house, what is probably an easier solution is to portion off a separate area of the closet with a wall/door and create an electrical closet, or remove the portion of closet around the panel which meets the clearance requirements. It may amount to only several hundred dollars.