I will strongly recommend to have it checked one, two and 100 times if necesary… more eyes on top of it, less mistakes are let aside!
Just did a re-inspect before closing today on a gas leak I detected and water heater PRV that was plugged with a bolt. I wrote both of these up as safety concerns. The seller fixed these items for the buyer and I took 15 minutes out of my life to sign off that these areas were now satisfactory.
I feel very comfortable in my re-inspection as now these area are of NO concern. I don’t see where this will end up a problem for me because I helped in eliminating two very serious potential safety hazards that if left alone could have destroyed lives.
As much as I don’t want to deal with re-inspections, I am willing to do them if needed on those RARE occasions.
I was able to educate the seller and buyer about the hazard of PLUGGING the PRV and the need to have proper extension.
I was actually called to do the re-inspection on some plumbing issues and water entry through foundation where wood paneling on the basement wall was warped. I originally wrote it up as a potential water intrusion causing the warping due to the fact that I couldn’t see behind the paneling, but the paneling was removed and there was no visible water intrusion. The lender wanted these ares looked at again. It wasn’t until I just happened to look at the water heater to see if the PVR was unplugged that I noticed it was not fixed. Then looked at the gas line and saw that someone had put some kind of sealant around the seams that wasn’t there before. I ran out to my truck, grabbed my gas leak detector, and low and behold, the leak was still there around the VALVE which was where I reported it. Since the seller was there I grabbed him and showed him these issues, since he was there helping fix the other plumbing issues, and pointed out what needed done. He fixed the PRV right away with proper extension and tightened the nut on the back of the gas line valve. I hit it with my detector and all was good.
Is making sure these safety issues are addressed wrong for me to do? It seemed like the right thing to do since the lender was going to close on this property without making sure the safety issues were fixed. Seemed odd that they were more interested in the water working correctly than the fact that the seller turned the water heater into a missile and a gas line was leaking. I live my life by doing what’s right. But was this the right thing to do in this situation. I felt if I left these issues alone and didn’t get the seller to fix them, it could have resulted in very bad things happening. Am I more liable in leaving them alone or in making sure they got fixed? I know it probably wasn’t my place to step in and get it done, but nobody else was.
Right or wrong?
I recently had an agent request I inspect an engineer’s work…go figure.
I couldn’t help but laugh.