Here's a close up

And another view. The inspector put arrow indicating that it should be straight up and down

Your inspector hasn't seen many chimneys. There is nothing wrong here. What, does he think someone bumped into it and made it crooked? It was built that way for a reason, probably to get from the house to exit the roof at an appropriate place.

We just got thus need avd its past business jukes over here

That made my head hurt.

Nothing wrong with that chimney. Not so sure about the inspector. Or the OP's keyboard! :~P

Plenty of them built that way, nothing wrong with it.

The chimney looks sound externally. The question is, what does the interior look like? That is where the rubber meets the road. Is the chimney lined? Is the liner properly sized for the appliance(s) it is venting? Gas, oil, wood? Net/net does the chimney meet NFPA 211 requirements. An inspection by a National Chimney Sweep Guild certified outfit would be worthwhile.

A second look at your last picture reveals why the chimney was built that way. If it were built as his arrow specifies, it would cut through the non-structural ridge board of the roof.

Although there isn't any danger, I believe the line is an indicator of an older chimney not meeting modern building code standards:

"2113A.5 Corbeling. Masonry chimneys shall not be corbeled more than half of the chimney's wall thickness from a wall or foundation, nor shall a chimney be corbeled from a wall or foundation that is less than 12 inches (305 mm) in thickness unless it projects equally on each side of the wall, except that on the second story of a two-story dwelling, corbeling of chimneys on the exterior of the enclosing walls is permitted to equal the wall thickness. The projection of a single course shall not exceed one-half the unit height or one-third of the unit bed depth, whichever is less."

"2113A.7 Offsets. Where a masonry chimney is constructed with a fireclay flue liner surrounded by one wythe of masonry, the maximum offset shall be such that the centerline of the flue above the offset does not extend beyond the center of the chimney wall below the offset. Where the chimney offset is supported by masonry below the offset in an approved manner, the maximum offset limitations shall not apply. Each individual corbeled masonry course of the offset shall not exceed the projection limitations specified in Section 2113A.5."

The best solution may be to abandon the chimney. How old is the furnace? Modern furnaces and hot water tanks can be vented out the side of the house in PVC.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chimney code

This post was edited by Trebruchet on Thu, May 22, 14 at 9:42

Wow, I love this board. I saw the photos and thought "holy crap! That's an accident waiting to happen" and then read through all your replies saying "no big deal, it's done that way all the time."

I never cease to learn new stuff here. Thanks everyone.