And not selling supplies immediately leads to people wiring their homes with cut off extension cords, scotch tape and scrounged materials.
I'm not really sure I like the Austrian system where normal people aren't allowed to do anything beyond replacing a light bulb but licensed electrician are not checked upon at all unless there is a fire or someone is electrocuted.
If you have a permit system and inspections, there is a very thin line concerning repair or upgrade work: how far do you require existing conditions to be fixed? If someone gets a service replacement, do you consider this a major change and force him to ground all his old ungrounded circuits, add all receptacles required by current code?
Or (ypical Austrian situation, because here the utility company gets involved and does inspect the work) if someone has a 1970s meter feed without a ground wire (because grounding was still commonly done via the water pipes back then), do you force him to get a new service for something like $2500?
Don't get me wrong, such clauses are often the only way to get people to fix existing hazards that would have gone unnoticed otherwise, but it's a very very thin line to where such requirements make people think: "Then better do nothing at all!".
