Sara,  I understand your unwillingness to stand out from the crowd but in matters of safety just make the call.

A very good example why independent home inspections are so important.  This type of inspection is so common with municipal inspections.  Until the politics are removed from municipal inspections we will have this type of inspection work being done by the code police.

New homes are even worse, in many areas of the country.  Those inspections are done many times by a waive from the inspectors truck window!  As sad as it sounds, it is a daily occurrence.  Many towns make a major part of their income from building permits.  The builders know this and if the inspectors get too tough they let the mayor or supervisors know that they can move their operations to another city or town.

Hi Sara,  I'm not sure I agree with these earlier comments.  I think your original feelings may have been the better way to go.  It's highly unlikely that your complaint will accomplish much in terms of this old inspector.  But, it very easily could open a can of worms for you, either in past, current or future endeavors.

There's good and bad in every profession and trade.

BUT, when it comes to safety like this does, you oughta make the call.

You'll never know (whether you call or not) if it makes a difference, but the chances are better that it will change somones life.

Erby is correct.  If the fireplace is not installed correctly there could be some very serious and dangerous hazards.  This isn't about complaining, it's about safety... your and someone else's down the road.

Sara this is why it is so important to have a Professional Home inspector .

AHJ's or municipal code inspectors examine systems only to a minimum standard even when they do their job properly.

Quality of workmanship is never even an after thought .

In Chicago The Daily Herald did a series on how there is a big shortage of Code inspectors in the Chicagoland area.

I realise your professional end of it is financial, but as you can see there is protection of people and property to concider.

Thank you Sara for bringing this to our attention.

Most code inspectors are in and out before you can blink an eye.

This is why I laugh, when a potential client asks if they need an inspection since the city inspects it anyway.

Well, you know what they say! We're the "City That Works"!! Or sort of.... :))

Happy New Year You!!! 

Thank you for the the info.  Very true...you often wonder what they are inspecting. 

In NJ, the city had the seller demolish a 2 story detached, heated garage with skylights.  The seller had no permits.

Sara, listen carefully to Erby, Joseph, Bob and Scott  (and me).  Make the call.  In my experience as a builder and dealing with inspectors for 30 years---the municipalities want to know, and most have ways of doing it anonymously if you are concerned about any type of "retaliation."

Heck we don't need no stinkin permits where I live. I called the city to ask about getting a permit to install a half bath downstairs and the city told me I didn't need one as long as I wasn't changing the original footprint of the home. I have a finished walk up attic as well that also didn't require one. If you look at the records for my house online you'd be WAY off in square footage and half a bath short in the bathroom counts.

Kenneth J Miller

www.miller-appraisals.net

While I always get permits, I also submit my plans approved by a licensed engineer.  I have had too many inspectors play games asking for upgrades they want that are not required under the code.  The engineered plans stop that game dead in its tracks.

The quality of inspections for any municipality and especially Portland is sometimes subject to disgust. It is also not abnormal for Inspector's to get side tracked. The primary reason is that they often cover for each other. An inspector who normally covers Insulation for example and has limited knowledge about Fireplaces may be asked to cover that based on previous inspections.

Example: The case load says that there must be 100 inspections that day with only 10 inspectors to cover. Normally that would be 10 each. However after examining the inspection requests they find that Fourty of the requests have had multiple problems on previous inspections. Hence the more qualified individuals that specialize in that request will most likely cover those problem files while the remainder of the requests may get devided up between the rest of the inspector's. Those inspectors will show up to complete the cycle of paperwork required and will normally only take a cursory look to see if there are any blatant problems.

In addition often times the work being done is by an outside Contractor and not the home owner. Once again the city has knowledge of past inspections by these companies. Those that are known to do the work to higher than code standards are often given only a cursory glimpse where as problem contractors will enjoy the full monte so to speek.

Congrats on feature.

The devil is the permit you don't get.

I'm in agreement with the value of independent, professional home inspectors though.  Never trust a government body to do the job of a professional.

That is sorta like some of the electrical inspectors around here (used to be an electrician). They walk in the door (if they made it out of their trucks) and glance left/right, and say 'good day'. That is if they didnt just call on the phone and say.... "how deep did you bury it?" US- "2ft" Him- "ok, you passed". HAHA What a joke. Not that we did a bad job, we took our work seriously, professionally, and were proud of it. Maybe after awhile the inspector just knew the kind of work we did and had faith in us.

Sarah if there were, they might be ashamed to admit it.

I do nothing without permits.  It's simply not worth the potential porblems and, once they catch you doing somethign without permits, teh inpectors will be brutal from that day forward.  Play the game, make nice and pay the fee and all will be well.

 

 

Sara, some people may say, "What the heck are you complaining about?  The fireplace passed the inspection."  I think that what you are dealing with is called a conscience.  Most people would have done a dance after the inspector left, thinking they got a bargain or pulled the wool over someone's eyes.  What I have seen with many inspectors is they have been "kicked in the teeth" so many times for doing their jobs, they basically just go along, to get along.  If you complained about this guy, more than likely the people you complain to, are the same people who caused the problem to start with but you have to always do the right thing.

In NYC there are alot of uncover sting operations on going to catch inspectors. Some by the media and some by the Building Department, if the inspector accept a cup of coffee he or she will be fired.

Since housing has slowed down, many inspectors seem to have extra time on their hands and seem to cite the oddest items. You came out not too bad. I have heard some horrifying stories from rehabbers.

I do not know why the inspector that came to inspect your new gas fireplace. Never step foot in your living room to do the inspection it is baffling to me. The first thing I would have ask you is do you have a carbon monoxide detector in your living room, and then I would have started my inspection. In NYC we have had 3 cranes fall and people died, the inspectors wrote up the cranes but nothing was done. Now their are special investigation to see what happen. 

It really depends on who you get and what mood they are in. Sometimes they are in a great mood and would pass anything and other days they are not. I see the same with pest inspectors, sometimes they are in and out in minutes, 5min=$125, not bad.

My extremely old pool inspector flagged my outdoor grill for being too close to the pool.  It was a new grill and we just took it out of the box and set it on the floor next to the pool so we could take the old one off which was about 10 feet away!  He didn't bother to look around, or take the time to use some common sense and ask himself why anyone would want to grill on the ground????

That just goes to show just how "observant" some inspectors are!

I feel your pain,

Cody SperberAKA Klever Investor

Well you have had some interesting comments.  I am all about safety so better to be certain it is installed correctly.  I would call them back and make them send out someone who knows what they are looking for.