Laps in New House Chimney Inspection

[avesfleming]

Good afternoon. Not sure if this is the place to get the answer to this question or not. So please advise as appropriate. I recently purchased a house in Maryland. I got a home inspection, but not a chimney inspection of the wood burning chimney. I just had the chimney inspected as we are in fire season, and sure enough, the chimney is a prefab chimney at the end of its life in rough shape. The inspector told me that it is NFPA code for all a Class II inspection to occur during any transfer of ownership (which did not occur). And that we could have five years from the time of purchase to sue for damages. My question is, can anyone confirm this is true? If so can you provide a copy of the code in reference?

Lastly, does anyone have any experience with this? It seems unlikely to get a real estate company to admit they provided poor guidance after all of their indemnifying contract language has been signed.

Thanks

Andrew

 

[bholler]

Good afternoon. Not sure if this is the place to get the answer to this question or not. So please advise as appropriate. I recently purchased a house in Maryland. I got a home inspection, but not a chimney inspection of the wood burning chimney. I just had the chimney inspected as we are in fire season, and sure enough, the chimney is a prefab chimney at the end of its life in rough shape. The inspector told me that it is NFPA code for all a Class II inspection to occur during any transfer of ownership (which did not occur). And that we could have five years from the time of purchase to sue for damages. My question is, can anyone confirm this is true? If so can you provide a copy of the code in reference?

Lastly, does anyone have any experience with this? It seems unlikely to get a real estate company to admit they provided poor guidance after all of their indemnifying contract language has been signed.

Thanks

Andrew

It is not code. The only way you could sue is if you could prove they knew the chimney was defective and did not disclose it.

Yes you should have a level 2 inspection done but that was your responsibility not the sellers.

 

[avesfleming]

It is not code. The only way you could sue is if you could prove they knew the chimney was defective and did not disclose it.

Yes you should have a level 2 inspection done but that was your responsibility not the sellers.

Interesting. According to information on the Chimney Safety Institute of America, a level 2 is required. If it is not part of the code, how is it required?

Chimney Inspections

Learn about the three levels of chimney inspection as laid out by the National Fire Protection Association.

www.csia.org

.

 

[bholler]

Interesting. According to information on the Chimney Safety Institute of America, a level 2 is required. If it is not part of the code, how is it required?

Chimney Inspections

Learn about the three levels of chimney inspection as laid out by the National Fire Protection Association.

www.csia.org

.

It is required of csia certified sweeps to do a level 2 inspection in those cases. Not required by code.