Home inspector cites 30 plus things "not to code"

[Matthew Paul]

I am a contractor since 1981 . I have a customer selling their house for $875,000 . The home inspector came back with a laundry list of " problems" with the home .  Now this house has been maintained beautifully , the house is in excellent condition . Built in 1976 . 90% of his problems were things "not to code" . Last week I spent 2 hours going over the list at the house . A partial list was , fireplace built wrong unsafe , no electrical disconnect on outside of house , no gfci breakers in bathroom , garage or outside outlets , moisture around foundation , basement steps not built to code , no escape window in basement .  Now buyers want all this fixed . So today I met with the "inspector" and the buyers .  We looked at the major items and I had to explain to both the inspector and buyers that this house was built in 1976 , and yes it was built to code , 1976 code . I only had the code book from 1981 but it didnt change much . 

Now the inspector gets on his high horse and says that the house needs to be brought up to todays code to be safe . So I asked him if he got EVERYTHING not up to todays code and he says Yes he is a professional he got it all . I said ok lets see , and I started with the exterior walls , they are 2x4's , code is 2x6 's , so insulation isnt up to code either , front door , too narrow , electrical outlets in each room , not enough of them , windows , too low , garage wall not fire rated drywall . Then I stopped and said in order to bring this house and every house in this upscale community up to code , I would have to tear it down and start over . That includes 90% of the houses in this zip code . Looking at the buyers I told them if they want up to code , look at new houses . And if they want I will walk thru the entire house with them and go over the inspectors list . In the end I had the electrician install 6 gcfi outlets and a chimney liner .  the inspector wasnt happy with me at all . 

[Michael Ablan]

@Matthew Paul -  This got my blood boiling just reading it.  As a broker, rehabber, and flipper, guys like this are the bane of my existence.  They're usually unreasonable and seem to get off on killing deals by scaring the crap out of their clients by blowing everything out of proportion.   I think you handled this as best as you could.   

I try to find a reasonable middle ground with buyers requests, but at the end of the day, I'll tell them to hit the road if they're being completely unreasonable.  If something is UNSAFE, then it absolutely must be corrected, but keeping everything up to CURRENT day code is impossible and completely unreasonable, especially in homes that are 30+ years old.

Just continue to be honest, professional and thorough.  Sorry you're having to deal with it