Last week I was doing a inspection in a village that does “village inspections”. The village code enforcement officer was present at the same time I was doing my inspection for the client, and this guy was getting my way, telling my client that very obvious defects that I found in this house were not a problem, and did not need attention. A few of the items that I found was a 6 person hot tub installed in a second floor master bathroom, you know the type of hot tub you would find on ones rear patio, I called out that the size of the floor drain near this tub, which was 1 1/2 inches was not large enough to handle the amount of water in the tub in the event a leak were to occurr. The village code officer told the client that “hot tubs don’t ever leak, and not to worry about it”. Another problem was I found that the water heater and furnace were tampered with, a gas leak was detected on both units, and again this code officer told my client, and I quote" all water heaters and furnaces leak gas, its nothing to worry about" when I discovered the gas leaks I personally called the gas company and asked that they respond to shut off the gas. I asked this code officer what type of training he has had doing home inspections, his reply was none, that he just started working for this village about a month ago, and that he knew what he was doing. He then asked me for my license, which I produced. He told me that if I did not stop getting in his way while he was doing his inspection he would have a police officer come and escort me off the property. This was a bank owned property. My client was totally confused not knowing who to listen to, I explained to my client that these so called village inspectors are just that so called inspectors, no training, no license no nothing, just paper pushers collecting a paycheck every two weeks.
My question is, is there any legislation or talk about how these towns and villages get away with this, charging fees to do “village inspections” and giving the buyers false and wrong information? I have found that sellers are not correcting problems found with a home inspection due to the village code officers not finding problems during thier “so called inspections”. I have heard from sellers also that "the village did not see any problems, so I am not going to fix anything you find.
You can not fight City Hall but you can let your client know exactly what you said.
Many issues are not against code but in say the gas leak case you could have made him look like a fool by calling the gas company right in front of him.
They more than likely would have come out and turned of the gas to the offending unit while he argued with them also.
There is no such thing as a safe gas leak.
I would have asked him to put that opinion on paper.:):)
Codies generally have authority, but no liability. HIs are the oposite.
Tim,
Romoeville has a foreclosure mitigation program. I have had a recent increase in mold inspections in Romeoville due to this program. I asked a realtor who contacted me for a mold inspection why the city recently began requiring mold inspections on foreclosures. Her response was"the city inspectors missed some mold in a home during an inspection and a little kid got sick as a result of exposure to mold which resulted in a lawsuit". I don’t think they do inspections anymore but if there is mold in the home,they want it confirmed or tested to verify that it is mold. I had one realtor call and ask for an mold inspection report without actually going to the property. I told him I had to do a visual and sample if I found any.He didn’t want to pay and I never heard from him.