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Ian, that's the sort of thing I was indirectly referring to. There are ways to fool those little testers .... and the unscrupulous seller will do so - then present the place as having all new, grounded electrical. There's a word for that: Fraud. Likewise, I have yet to find someone who has used a GFCI breaker in this situation.

The Home Inspector forums were all upset when someone let the cat out of the bag .... these guys had been placing so much faith in those testers. Viewing their forums today, they still focus on what's 'easy to inspect,' and dither over minute details .... rather than take a substantial look at things. Add to that their airs of self importance, and it's almost comical.

That 'service upgrade' has all the hallmarks of a non-permitted DIY / handyman job - and it's ugly, too!

Pretty Hideous. Around here(and most everywhere else), new meter boxes are never installed in the basement- they're usually outside. Is this common for the area?

Seriously, I'd like to see the other end of the flex. How do these hacks do this without the POCO cutting off the power?

---"Unfortunately, these hustlers are not above playing with the electric. For us, this means we will be finding all manner of silliness (and dangers) as we go to repair their 'upgrades.'"---

Could this perhaps have anything to do with the '08 changes? Just a thought. Not that it matters to "Them".


--"I'm worried that the white wire that is holding the 90° connector together will come undone and fall apart. Hopefully they used solid wire otherwise that would be just dumb "---

They can't be that dumb!!! Of course it's solid. Why go thru the trouble of that #12 wood screw.

as much as I dislike the petty nattering of home inspectors, at least if a HI took a look at this it'd probably get a real EC in there to clean this mess up, a lot of the problems here are cosmetic, debatable, or violations dependent on local codes, but there are some genuine safety issues I can see, mainly at that hacked up meter/disco combo.

that panel looks like a Siemens, which is about the cheapest of the cheap, although the screw and the way the verbiage is printed on some of those breakers makes them look like SQD, (which the panel is obviously not)

I just don't like it

-Will

The only things HIs report are asbestos siding and lack of GFCIs on 1950s circuits.

Ian A.

Disgusting!
You can tell that is Destroy it Yoursef at its finest there... I can't really tell but it even looks like some of the cables entering the panel at the bottom right just pass through the KO without a connector...

I'd like to see what happens here in Ontario with the implementation of "smartmeters". They record time of use and are remote read BUT also transmit a "loss of supply" signal to the PoCo should the supply to the line side terminals disappear or if the meter is pulled illegally.
Regardless we are still going to be plagued with people that try to do this kind of work themselves and do illegal panel changes HOT!

A.D

No doubt that's one of the worst installations that I've ever seen. What stinks is that I am an EC and I've been in the industry since 1974, yet some home inspector comes in gigs me for a 15/15 twin breaker using 14 gauge wire in my shed. Something tells me that the same guy would miss every bit of that installation.