Can an inspector make me re-pipe the house?

[Christine Edwards]

Hi,

I am in the process of rehabbing a home I own.  I had a plumber go over to give me an estimate for converting a half bath to a full bath and he called me back claiming that the plumbing inspector wasn't going to allow him to tie into the type of pipes I have and I was going to have to re-pipe the whole house.  

Is that a possibility?  Can the inspector really make me replace all the pipes in the house?

Thank you in advance for your help.  This is definitely an expense I had not planned for.

Christine

[Chris Ayars]

The job has to be permitted and inspected by the city/county inspector, so the short answer is "YES." 

The longer answer might be to talk to the permitting authority and find out from them how much would be grandfathered in - if any - and how much really has to be re-piped. Then go to a different plumber if you have to. It may require having the job pre-inspected to get that determination.

Unpermitted jobs will cause you problems when you try to sell the property because the appraisers look that stuff up. If you were to shortcut that process, it will only lead to problems down the road.