We have several large condominium communities here that are from the early 60's. They are in groups of six, with six pack meter-mains on the end of each building and a 100 amp FPE sub panel in each unit fed with SEU. There are no attics, flat roofs and the SEU feeders pass through the inaccessible ceiling structures to get to each unit. As these units get sold one at a time by their private owners the home inspectors are coming in and pointing out the FPE sub panels, and the buyers want them changed. Since the SEU is not run in conduit we only have 3 conductors and the neutral is bonded to the ground in each panel. Getting a new feed to a condo 100 feet or more away with no attic is not realistic. Installing a new sub panel with a 3 wire feed is not code compliant, but still better than keeping the FPE. I plan to call the city tomorrow, but meanwhile what would you do in this situation? My fear is that units could be sold again in the future with the replaced sub panels and when the HI points out the neutrals/grounds on the same bus fingers will be pointing at the installer.
