[Noah930]

My in-laws had a pipe leak/burst at their house. Did some water damage, and now they're in the process of the repairs. Part of this requires home inspections by the local municipality. Yesterday, they had an inspector come. The inspection had to be done inside the residence. He refused to wear a mask. Didn't have one on him. Didn't have one in the truck. Refused to wear one provided by my in-laws. What would you guys do?

I don't know what the local regulations are (re: mask requirement) right now where my in-laws live. Heck, things change so much I'm never quite sure what the regulations are where I live, let alone cross-country where my in-laws reside.

So for sake of argument, and assuming there is no legal mask requirement, would you have let the guy inside your house to do a construction inspection? If you give him a hard time, he gives you a hard time. If you say no, then your house doesn't get inspected and your construction gets delayed. That's your problem, not his. BTW, there will be a series of inspections, so he'll likely get called on to return in the future as construction progresses.

If you turn him away today, do you call the town and ask for a different inspector? What if there is no other inspector (other guy's out on disability, paternity leave, extended jury duty, just retired)?

My in-laws are obviously older; my FIL just turned 80. My MIL has some health issues. They have actually been pretty fastidious about this whole quarantine thing these past 5 months. So they've been cautious about this pandemic--that's their stance.

Admittedly, I'm not sure how they've handled the construction thing. Obviously they have workers in their house handling the construction. But as my FIL hasn't raised a stink about this up until now, I'm guessing the construction guys have been masked.

Likely the health risk posed by one unmasked inspector is low. But to a certain degree, there's the principle of the thing: can a worker (the building inspector) refuse a small and not unreasonable request (wearing a mask) when working inside someone's private residence? As a homeowner, do I have to let people into my house when I'm not comfortable with their actions? Realistically I can't refuse the inspections. But can I refuse the inspector? What if I can't refuse the inspector out of reasons of practicality?