Properties With New Electrical Across Metro Vancouver

Verify New Electrical Against the Municipal Permit Record

New Electrical on a listing can mean a full rewire or a swapped panel, so ask for the permit and the final inspection date before you treat the work as done.

The phrase covers a wide range of work. A new panel with the original branch wiring behind it is not the same as a full rewire, and only one of those satisfies an insurer looking at a pre-war house. Ask the listing agent for the electrical permit number and the inspection date, then confirm both with the municipality rather than accepting the MLS® description.

Ask what was actually replaced. The service entrance, the panel, the branch circuits and the devices are four separate jobs, and a renovation often stops at the first two because the walls were already closed. Have your inspector open a receptacle in an older part of the house and report on the wiring behind it.

Weigh Capacity, Not Just Age, Before You Remove Subjects

Capacity matters as much as newness. A recently replaced panel can still be undersized for a heat pump, a car charger, a second kitchen and an induction range on the same service, and upgrading the service later means the utility, a permit and a trench across the yard. Ask what the service size is and how many spare breaker spaces the panel has.

Where a secondary suite exists, the electrical work has to match the permitted use. Separate circuits, interconnected smoke alarms and, in some cases, a separate meter are required, and an unpermitted suite usually fails on exactly this point. Request the permit history for the suite alongside the panel work.

Then bring it into the offer. Ask your insurance broker to quote the address before subjects come off, because knob-and-tube or aluminum branch wiring still in service can restrict which insurers will write a policy at all, and that in turn affects your lender. Get the answer in writing rather than by phone.