Joe, I've done inspections for real estate people, and after seeing my laundry list of needed repairs, I'd never hear from them again. When inspecting for prospective buyers, I am free to open boxes and snoop around as much as I have to in order to get a clear understanding of the quality of the electrical installation. Yet, city or county inspectors don't have time, nor permission, to snoop so thoroughly. I think third party inspections can be more thorough.
But it all depends on who is paying the bill. Its always a money/time thing.
As far as particular parts of the code are concerned, I think that an inspector that is going to enforce things in a certain area for a long time will try to attend to things which will cause problems down the line..as in the case of the two articles you mentioned. If someone is just doing a bit of short-order inspection fill-in, they might want to make it profitable instead of thorough. We don't have any regular inspections done that way here in my area of Oregon. Like I mentioned, it might be done for real estate transactions, or for temporary contracts to fill in for an inspector who is ill, or on vacation, or overloaded with work, but not as a regular "third party inspection service" like you are referring to.
[This message has been edited by Elzappr (edited 02-22-2003).]
