"gary" wrote in message
...
Alan Sung wrote:
"Andrew Koenig" wrote in message
...
... snip ...

I would think that whether or not your municipality requires it, you

should

ensure that the house meets all building codes before you buy it.
Because
if it doesn't, you might be responsible for fixing those problems before

you

sell it. In other words, while you're there, whatever municipality it
is
might decide to institute a rule that requires all houses to meet code

when

they're sold. In which case the problem is on your shoulders.


That is not practical. The general rule of thumb is that the building
was in
compliance with the code at the time it was built or renovated and
subsequently inspected/signed off. Today's code is much stricter than in
the
past. Having a municipality force you to come up to code would be
prohibitively expensive given the number of older homes.

-al sung
Rapid Realm Technology, Inc.
Hopkinton, MA


Except if the code violation would have been a violation "back then"
when the house was built you could still be liable. Don't count on the
city inspectors to find much if anything, based on my experience.

Let's say for example there was some code violation "back then" BUT the
building inspector at that time signs off and says everything is fine (like
you said, they might not find anything).
Now you go sell today... the municipality cannot force you to correct what
was originally approved by them. There are cases where the municipality is
held responsible if it can be proven that it knowingly and negligently
approved work that was in violation of the code "back then" but this is not
an easy thing to do.

-al sung