Selling Knob & Tube Properties - Need Tips

tool junkie

My friend is selling his apartments that he inherited from a death in the family. I think he is going to run into some issues on the electrical with the buyers at inspection time. I’ve never seen such a mess.

1) K&T in attic has live cut wires hanging from terminated circuits and some added splices here and there that were not soldered.

2) Some conductors are no longer supported and just laying across the rafters.

3) At least half of the tubes are missing and the wire is in contact with the wood.

4) At least half of the wire has the old brittle insulation and there is bare wire in many places.

The beauty of K&T is that it works well as long at it is in good condition and left alone and you respect the load limits, but that is not the case here. Now tenants are running big window air conditioners (often more than one), computers, huge flat panel TVs etc.

5) Now here's what kicks me in the ass, and maybe it’s because I'm uninformed and worry needlessly, but there are two buildings (six units) and no main panel and no sub panels in the units. The only breaker in sight is a box with a 30A breaker BEFORE each meter that only serves as a main shut-off to each apt. So it goes like this... service entrance to 30A breaker>to meter>to indoor straight to outlets no panel. One tenant has a main disconnect only and no breaker and says "he never has any problem running everything" for obvious reasons.

Anyway, need some tips on how to ready this for sale short of doing a complete re-wire which I know they won’t go for. I see prospective buyers using this as a bargaining chip claiming that the property is uninsureable or what-not. What fixes can they do to minimize that impact? We'll hire someone for the job but whats the minimum we can do to pass a home inspection?

- Or is it not as bad as I think? The truth is that it has worked up to this point without a mishap.

Thanks for reading...

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ScipioAfricanus

You could leave it as is and hope that no little kids get electrocuted or burned in a fire...umm...maybe not.

You could ask your friend to put a price on his peace of mind, option 1) sell as-is $$$$...option 2) put up the money to have it fixed properly then sell it $$$.

I would go for no. 2.

Andy.

tool junkie

Existing K&T is allowed in this area but it does need to be maintained. I think we'll fix the minor stuff in the attic and I'll suggest adding a panel and divide the kitchen and bath with dedicated circuits.

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donaldekliros

I would suggest to your friend that you at least install a new 150-Volt Panel and replace the wires in the Attic.

I would also suggest that you replace any other defective wires that you find.

I would also suggest that you solder all wires you feel should be soldered.

If he says no to this I would suggest you tell him to get some one else to check it out.


donaldekliros@msn.com

Bubbles

Put 15 amp Arc Fault on all the K&T circuits and get good smoke alarms. That's the cheapo way of fixing it

Celtic

I wouldn't worry about until you "know".

Who knows...maybe the seller find some violations and using the repair costs as a bargaining chip will expedite the sale.

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Archania

That's what selling it "as-is" is for. You may pay way more to upgrade stuff than people would want to knock off the price. Just make sure if you do or don't do anything to disclose it to potential buyers.

paintr56

I am not an electrician but I think I would worry more about doing some fixes and not doing the whole job. I can see an inspector coming in a saying since you modified the electrical you need to bring it to code. Any chance of that happening? If I was the buyer I would negotiate a better price and have the wiring brought up to code.

Jim

Bill Z

Just closed Friday on an old house with ancient wiring. Buyers originally agreed to accept as is but once the inspectors and banks got involved, we had to rewire the entire house. Unless your friend gets a true cash buyer, he should expect a long drawn out sale. The lender will go ape over every little detail regardless of the "short sale", they'll make it even shorter.

He can wait and see who the potential buyer is, but be prepared to bring the property up to snuff if financing is involved.