A structural engineer would be my second call. I would start by recommending a geotechnical engineering firm to do soil borings first. That is way beyond normal settlement.
Normally a soils test would be first for most houses but this sounds like a vacant bank owned house that would be worth very little even without this major problem.
I would recommend an appraiser and contractor get together first to see if its even worth investigating.
I bet the bank never spends the money on any engineers.
They will just sell it to someone for a little over the value of the lot which is probably too much.
Thats the sad part. It really should be condemned and torn down. THe whole lot was in a hole. I can only hope when they do fix it I may be fortunate enough to get to inspect it again. I think its sad to think the bank could try to push this onto someone else “as is”.
Perhaps this is one of thoses times to make a call to the local AHJ. They may need to get involved to prevent someone from getting hurt. You just know that no permits are going to be involved in the fix!
True dat, but my point being that the AHJ wouldn’t see what was happening if the permit process was bypassed. I like the media idea, but that wouldn’t insure someone in authority (that could legally prevent a catastrophy from happening) would act on it in time. It could be covered up long before then.
The problem that his example is only the tip of the iceberg here, try driving down some rural mountain roads , Some places do not even have a building inspector…
What Sean showed can be more typical than you even want to know.And there is even worst out there .
Media will show it for one day then it is over why you ask ? Because it is a common thing here.
We still have people dumping sewers into ditches, building with floor joist in contact with the dirt. and so on.
Make sure the client knows every hazzard you mention. I would hope we all do that but i have follow a few inspectors that seem to over look things.
We still have builders putting in s traps in new houses here . and will scream when you write it up. Agents just say it is the way its been done before lol
Yep I call it buying in *Braille ,
We have a lot buying over the internet right now, and not even seeing the home. I had 2 last week. after a 45 page inspection mostly defects they still asked what i thought lolol .
Electric issues
Post foundation ( half rotten posts)
Sink hole beside the home
No pressurized water system ( spring fed . Water could not flow to 2 nd floor for some reason lol
Unsafe wood stove heating the whole home ( Wood stove wrapped in roof metal ) Old single wall pipe rotten in half)
Piping had more patches than my favorite long underwear .
Metal roofing screws gaskets rotten
500 gal oil tank about to roll down the mountain
grey water dumping down to a stream
to mention a few