It is common and standard practice to remove the panel cover to inspect the wiring and connections and wire sizing. It is up to your sister to determine if she wants to risk the sale of the home by not getting it removed. But, the choice is hers, not the inspectors. Also, remember, that most buyers will want this inspection to be performed.

Agree with NCREG, as a buyer I would want the electrical inspected. If the seller refused I'm not sure I would go through with the purchase for fear of issues later. Maybe her agent could recommend a handyman to help her expose the panel and also repair it after the inspection clause is cleared?

Is it legal to have the panel inaccessible like this? How does the homeowner flip a breaker, or be able to turn off the power to the house in an emergency, or turn off power to a breaker for electrical work? Maybe I don't understand the situation correctly.

ottawavalleygardener, You misunderstand part of the post. The breakers can be flipped, but the faceplate can't be removed to expose the wiring. The inspector was correct in bringing it to your daughter's attention. Given the situation, I would have been upset if an inspector had tried to remove the trim to get to the panel without telling me first. Now, the question is what to do about it?

She can refuse to comply and the purchaser would have to make the decision whether to proceed with the sale. It certainly would be a situation where the purchaser could void the agreement to purchase and walk away. I probably would walk away under those circumstances.

She could agree to comply and get someone to carefully remove the trim. Then the inspection could proceed. This is the course of action I would take if I wanted to sell my house. It will keep coming up until it's addressed.

The electrical wiring is probably fine. But, as a purchaser I would require the inspection. It's up to your daughter. It's her decision on how to proceed.

I have a electrical sub panel that is on my powder room wall. I cover it with a very large picture. I take the picture down when we need to access the panel. I'm really surprised someone trimmed the panel over. I suggest a picture or wall hanging to hide the panel after the inspection.

I think the panel is accessible but the screws to remove the cover are not.

I am not a fan of a visual inspection of the electrical panel by an inspector. I think it is just this side of worthless.

The problem is that this is a code violation and, so far as I know, it has always been a code violation and wouldn't be grandfathered in. All electrical connections must be physically accessible and not behind obstructions (a drop ceiling is about all you can get away with). The electrical panel is the biggest connection in the house, it really should be easily accessible.

As bry said, it's a code violation and should be corrected anyways. If she hires a handyman to remove the obstruction, she should NOT just get him to put it back after the fact. Get him to properly mount the frame so that the panel cover can be removed in the future.

This is an issue that all inspectors should flag.

"A visual inspection of the electrical panel is just this side of
worthless. Running a voltmeter through the house and checking
functionality of the outlets and fixtures is infinitely more helpful."

This is not good advice. First of all a voltmeter will tell you very little about the wiring... a circuit tester will indicate whether the individual outlets are wired correctly, however tell you nothing about wire size/capacity.

An inspection of the panel is essential. In addition to telling you the condition of the home service, it will allow determination of wire size for each circuit, proper grounding, and finally proper service grounding.

This will take only a couple of minutes, but access to the panel's interior is absolutely required.

If you have a 'handy' person - all one has to do is enlarge the current opening so the panel cover can be removed. It's a small job, can be done neatly, have another person hold the vac while cutting. If you want, cut the hole larger, you can buy plastic 'L' shaped molding at the big box stores, and glue it around the rough cut (use a little caulk for glue). Throw away the door. It's an afternoon job.

Thanks, everyone, for the great input. I guess, she will have to find someone to remove it. As bry911 pointed out, the door of the panel is easily opened to access the breakers. The wood frame has a door that exposes the panel door, but evidently not enough space to access the screws to the panel front. This house was built in 1987, and my daughter is the third owner. The house passed inspection when she bought it in 2004 without this being a problem - code or otherwise. Anyway, we will find someone to help with this. Last question....would it be a good idea to just leave the entire wood frame and door off after the inspection and leave it to the buyers to decide whether they want it put back on? Thanks again!

Bry, my buyers inspectors have found breakers that were too large for the gauge wire that was wired to it. The breaker had to be downsized a bit... you want the breaker to trip first, before the wire gets overloaded. As far as I know, the only way to determine this is to physically inspect the wiring.

We have also found loose connections and also DIY connections that should have been on its own circuit.

The house passed inspection when she bought it in 2004 without this being a problem

Then your inspector wasn't very good! :)

Last question....would it be a good idea to just leave the entire wood
frame and door off after the inspection and leave it to the buyers to
decide whether they want it put back on?

It depends on the buyer. Personally, I'd probably prefer that you left it off so that I could fix it properly. But others are less handy and might require that it be fixed properly before they take possession. Others still might not care one bit that it's a code violation and would accept it if you just put it back the way it was.

The safest and most universally accepted option would be to fix it properly.

Once inspected and passed. Ask the purchaser if they want it replaced or do they want it left open. If the sale falls through, she will need to have it addressed for future purchasers.

<EDIT>

Looks like bry's posts that I was responding to were removed, so
my posts don't seem to make sense anymore. Oh well, I'm not going to
delete them.

<END EDIT>

An inspection is just to catch the big obvious errors. I've never heard of an inspector "doing a little math" to figure this stuff out with a multimeter. Most of these inspectors aren't even electricians, never mind being some kind of electrical engineer.

Popping off the breaker panel cover is one quick way to catch a bunch of possible errors. It isn't feasible for the inspector to remove the covers from every single outlet and look at the wiring there. If you want them to do that, you'll spend a lot more than the couple hundred that a regular inspection costs.

Plus, if it really was just 'a little math' then I feel like there would be a tool out there that you'd simply plug into the outlet and it would tell you exactly what the wire gauge is. I really think you might be over simplifying the calculation to support your point.

bry911,

"no inspector is going to do it anyway.."

Actually there is no way to meaningfully do it. The rub is in the fact that one end of the wire(s) is at the breaker inside the panel... the inside we can not access.

The other rub is how does one connect the two Ohmmeter terminals to each end of the wire between the outlet and the other end at the breaker. Very long test leads...

A creative way to do this, still involving the need to access the inaccessible panel would be to connect the hot and neutral wires together at one end. Now go to the other end and using short test leads measure the resistance between those two connectors. The value would be the combined in series total of the two conductors... halve that value and you've got the resistance of one wire.

As several people have mentioned, for a junction box to be inaccessible is against the electrical code, and having to remove nails and boards to access the inside of the breaker panel would count as being inaccessible. So the answer to this question is:

Last question....would it be a good idea to just leave the entire wood
frame and door off after the inspection and leave it to the buyers to
decide whether they want it put back on?

Definitely leave it off, since it is a violation of the electrical code for it to have been there in the first place. The fact that the previous inspector didn't note this fact and require that the frame be removed, simply means, as greg_2015 pointed out, that that inspector wasn't very good at his job.

Thanks again for the advice. It turns out, it wasn't that difficult to remove the frame - just a couple of screws. The inspector was out last night and should have the report completed soon. An another note, a few upstairs outlets didn't work after the inspector's first trip. Worked fine that morning, but not after he messed with the box. Found one circuit breaker tripped, which fixed one problem. Haven't figured out the 2nd yet. Is there a liability on his part if something is wrong?