Home Inspector Gets Sued

JohnFRWhipple

Did any one else read about this.

A Home Inspector here in the Vancouver area did a dodgey job and never reported the extent of the problems. The inspectors guess of $20,000 to fix the job was off by nearly $200,000.

Here is a link to the article http://www2.canada.com/northshorenew...447806&k=24560

The clients took him to court and they won.

I have seen so many missed problems on homes my clients had inspected and that I found after the fact. My favourite was 5 years back when my new clients asked me move the dining room light fixture location.

I told them no problem that it was a 2 hour job plus my spray tex guys bill. I go into the attic which was accessed through a walk out 3'x3' panel door, installed my double 500 watt halogens and was surprised when I hit the switch to find 3 full sized garbage cans collecting rain water. We reviewed the inspection report and the attic was commented as in good condition and needs no work.

What a joke.

I think now more inspectors will work for the client and not the real estate agent. It's about time.

Up here in Canada I have been told that the home inspectors are all part of a group or organization that prevents them from reporting on and commenting on their peers work. I guess it's like I watch your back and you watch mine.

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John Whipple (By Any Design Ltd.) - Member of Terrazzo Tile and Marble Association of Canada, the National Kitchen & Bath Association and the National Tile Contractors Association. Specializing in Vancouver bathroom renovations, linear shower drain installations and shower waterproofing procedures.

Kaiser

It seems to me any dink with 2 g's can get a H.I. Cert.

I checked into the National Home inspectors site once and they gave a list of tools required to be an H.I. one of these tools was a marble to check for sinking foundations.

That's when I decided I couldn't be a part of that farce.

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Tom R

Apparently the garbage cans weren't leaking??

JohnFRWhipple

They were catching slow drips.

The can's where 2/3 full when I found them. My guess is that the previous home owner must have bailed them out on occasion.

__________________
John Whipple (By Any Design Ltd.) - Member of Terrazzo Tile and Marble Association of Canada, the National Kitchen & Bath Association and the National Tile Contractors Association. Specializing in Vancouver bathroom renovations, linear shower drain installations and shower waterproofing procedures.

SC sawdaddy

Apparently some of the H.I.'s I've worked with have lost their marbles.

mics_54

The new and improved square marbles quickly repair sunken foundations.

10fingers

I think now more inspectors will work for the client and not the real estate agent. It's about time.


Realestate must be a cash cow for the inspectors. Estimate too high and no one buys the house. Keep the realestate sales people happy and you have a job.

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Greg Di

I've seen the opposite with a few inspectors...they inspect a 90 year old house and red flag EVERYTHING to cover their butts. The buyer calls me to do all these repairs, and I go there to estimate it, and there's no work worth bothering to do.

Let's see... a 90 year old house on a rubble foundation and there is a 6" section of DRIED out sill plate that some bugs got into in 1950 and left. Sure...let's jack up the house to fix that one tomorrow.

It's usually rot in the plates of older houses, where at some point long ago, there WAS a water problem that was fixed so the problem stopped, but the cosmetics remained.

The inspectors should know this and note it. Not red flag it.

In fact, an inspector I know I can't refer anymore because he's TOO anal. He blows up every deal he goes near because he's too thorough. He scares people away. He takes 6 hours to do a house, which is commendable, but he reports EVERYTHING a normal, older house would have as if it was world-ending.

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Five Star

I find around here that homeowners tell the inspectors to be anal,then they call in the contractors for high estimates so they can try to knock 10-20k off the price of the home!
They think we contractors don tknow this, so i started charging a consultation fee if homeowners/realtors dont own the house i charge a few to come out for a consultaion!
The fee is then taken off the price of the estimate if we get the work in a foreseen time frame usually good for 90 days!

This definitely weeds out the tire kickers!

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Zinsco

Here in Southern California 15 years ago the home inspection business was a racket, many unqualified people doing it. But now for the most part, home inspectors are qualified and have integrity....
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jkfox624

I took a test, NAHCI offered it online to get my home inspectors license like 6 years ago. Test was ez mode. Got the insurance which was rather costly, talked to all the real estate agents in town 2 told me to pound salt they did their own inspections. 1 told me they felt no need to get homes inspected and the other never called me back. I got like 12 inspections out of it and doing the right ups sucked. It might seem retarded but with the errors and ommision insurance premiums you have to document every single thing or your liable. Most ppl treated me like i was a douche bag for knit picking their new home, telling them their roof needs replaced now or the 3 busted rafters pose a huge risk. Sadly it seemed like a good way to make some extra money to bank for when times got slow, but i hated it. No matter what you did you came away with someone pissed at you whether it was the HO, realtor, or seller.

Destin Handyman

I just think the only people who should be allowed to even be considered to get an inspectors license would be a contractor with at least 5 years experience. I know home inspectors won't agree to that but so much trust goes into that inspection. When it comes to purchasing a home the new homeowners usually think this guy knows everything that there is to know about building and maintaining a home and that simply isnt the case.

David
Emerald Coast Deluxe Services LLC

jarvis design

I couldn't agree more!! Taking a course will not substitute years of experiance working on homes from 1-100 years old.

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BCConstruction

I have heard about inspectors passing stuff that shouldnt have been passed because they were getting back handers from the company. Im sure it happens here like it does in the UK.

Elite1

That doesn't surprise me. Around here I've heard of the drive by roof inspecton.
http://www.eliteroofingwi.com/

Renegade 1 LI

I took the home inspectors newly required education program at BOCES here in NY a couple of years ago when the state started to require licensing. Out of 18 people in the class only 3 or 4 of us were in the building trades the rest were retired cops, fireman & a mix of other non building related backgrounds. It was comical when we started to do the actual field inspection part of the course, it almost made me want to stop pursuing the license, but then I thought if this is the competition it won't take long to get beyond them. I agree, there is no substitute for real honest experience! I think having a background of new construction & remodeling experience should be a requirement for a HI license in addition to the required curriculum.