This is a spec home and the builder offers all warranties on it. This storage closet switch will be a major pain in the a$$ for the 50+ year couple purchasing it. I cannot see them crawling down the alley to turn on the switch.
Just a side note, this is a high end home in a high price oceanfront community.
Marc, are you saying this is up for interpretation?
Sorta. I can’t see enough of the room to say if it’s an attic or utility room. If it’s simply a closet, then the copied code section does not apply. No light is required at all in a closet. The title of that paragraph is “storage and equipment spaces”, which you’d think would apply to all storage spaces. When you start to read it, the only applicable rooms are attics, basements, utility rooms, and underfloor spaces. If someone installs a light in a closet, there isn’t really anything that requires the light switch to be fun to operate. There is the general “readily accessible” requirement for all switches, and that has a definition:
Accessible, Readily (Readily Accessible). Capable of being reached quickly for operation, renewal, or inspections without requiring those to whom ready access is requisite to climb over or remove obstacles or to resort to portable ladders, and so forth.
That definition does not preclude a person from having to crawl. I do agree that the arrangement shown in your picture and further described in the accompanying text is pretty stupid set-up. I guess you could say that when the closet is loaded, the person would have to climb over or remove obstacles to get to the switch. Hard to make that argument when you’re faced with an empty closet, but I understand HI’s have the option of reporting based on how the home will be used and not how it appears at this very moment. The “…and so forth” at the end of the definition gives a person a lot of room to call lots of things not readily accessible, such as having to crawl to reach the switch.