A word I hear tossed around a lot in the real estate industry is “Grandfathered”. What is the meaning of that term? In the housing and real estate industry it’s a term I will sometimes hear agents or sellers use to down play issues that come up in an inspection report. By definition it means “exempt from new law or regulation”. Why?…Because it’s old?…that’s insensible!

For example, a house built in 1920 has a set of basement stairs that don’t have balusters set in place to protect kids from falling off the sides of the stairs. This is a requirement per modern day building code, but in 1920 when the house was built, this was not required. A listing agent might say “oh well it’s ‘Grandfathered’ in”.

No. Missing balusters along a set of stairs is still a safety issue whether the home was built 200 years ago or 2 days ago. This goes for most things that are written up by an inspector in an inspection report. Things may not have been required when a home was originally built, but after many years people have discovered these things to be safety/major issues and so, they need to be addressed.

Let’s take an example that doesn’t have to do with building codes. Smoking cigarettes for example. 100 years ago no one knew it was bad for you or that it caused lung cancer. Today, everyone knows that cigarettes are bad and cause cancer. If a man that is 80 years old is smoking a cigarette next to a man who is 18 years old, are you going to say it’s okay that the 80 year old is smoking because he is “Grandfathered” in? And that it’s not okay that the 18 year old is smoking because we knew it was bad for him when he was born? Heck no! You’d say it’s bad for both of them! So why would safety issues in a house be any different?

Is “Grandfathered” just a term used by agents and sellers to soften the blow of any safety issues that come up in an inspection report? Is it just a term mistakenly used by agents and sellers because they don’t know any better? Either way, “Grandfathered “ is not a thing! Let’s forget the word even exists and address these safety issues in houses, no matter what the age.