First, let's deal with inspections. Inspections, in general, are a sampling--they are not a comprehensive review of your home and there's no guarantee an inspector didn't miss something. Whether or not you have the option to pursue legal action against your local municipality for not identifying a defect is a question for an attorney.

Regarding latent defects (defects that were in place, but not identified until after occupancy) there is a period of time during which the builder is responsible to correct them. That period varies from state to state. You should be able to find out from your local code official what period of time you have to report latent defects. You didn't report the latent defects to your builder and he didn't have the option to correct them, so I'm not sure he/she is responsible to shoulder any or all of the cost. That's an attorney question.

My mother had a saying, "You can't fight city hall"; I think that would apply here.

Your remedies depend on your jurisdiction and any warranties you may have.

For instance, in our jurisdiction the builder is responsible under a mandatory warranty programme for meeting the Provincial Building Code for one year after closing.

So if this claim were denied, I would consider a Small Claims Court action, which has a two-year limit from the cause of action. (As a builder, I've always been impressed by the electrical inspectors' thoroughness.)

In other words, there's no simple answer.

Typically, in the U.S., code enforcement officials have a duty to the community (municipality), not to the homeowner. Since they have no duty to the homeowner they can’t be negligent and are immune from actions by homeowners.

Your potential remedies likely would be against the GC, not the city inspector. Here is a link to a general overview of state-by-state deadlines, although it is slightly outdated and you should consult with an attorney in your area if it is something you would like to pursue. https://www.findlaw.com/realestate/construction-defects/construction-defect-laws-by-state.html

Just part of homeownership. You never have recourse against the city. Only the person who performed the work. Then only if it costs you hundreds of thousands, and you can afford the lawyer fees to go after someone.

Thanks all! This is my first home so I guess this is just a learning experience. My GC went out of business less than half a year after they finished.

Well, there goes your remedy.

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I discovered an electrical defect in our year-old home that I built corporately. When I told the electrician that I'd call the electrical inspector, he fixed it. The inspector could have pulled his licence.

Sometimes you just take care of a repair properly and move on.

We built a custom home. The garage door company we chose carried Genie openers. We've had several problems with them right from the start. One got replaced already under warranty. Another one is not working. If we started complaining to our builder, I'm sure he would try to work something out to get them repaired, but it isn't worth it as we plan to throw the Genie openers in the trash and get another brand. We'll buy 2 new Liftmaster openers and move on. Unexpected expenses are just part of homeownership and you just pray they don't happen that often!

OP, I hope the electrical issue is the only such problem you'll have. I think most of us are pretty naive about home construction and learn the hard way from experiences like this. Even after a dozen previous homes, we're still learning and having to pay to fix things that our builder failed to do correctly. At least these days I don't have to choose between paying an electrician and buying groceries, but I know some first time homeowners are on very tight budgets. Good luck!

Hahaha. I wish that was the only problem we had.

HVAC not blowing enough air into our Master Bath.

Shower floor not sealed properly and leaked and turned the concrete underneath to sand.

2 of 3 showers' knobs are reversed; hot is cold and cold is hot.

I'm sure we'll find more.

All in all, we love our home, though.

You should have some recourse with the builder. Our home is now almost five years old and for the first few years we had people in and out fixing deficiencies often. Not all of it went smoothly but it cost us nothing as they were deficiencies. Did you not make a list of deficiencies and then work through it to get them fixed?

The GC/builder went out of business.

“The GC/builder went out of business.”

You can go after the subs. Even if this is a production build you were an intended third party beneficiary. So you can enforce any warranty that the builder could have enforced.

Having said that… I strongly suspect the subs are not going to willingly address these issues and forcing them is likely not worth the cost unless your repairs are well into the five or six figures.