I received an interesting phone call today from a very upset young lady who had just moved into her new home which had been inspected before she bought it. I am happy to say that I wasn’t the inspector who inspected the home. Although maybe its to bad I wasn’t, because then she wouldn’t be upset.
It seems the inspector (who does the lions share of inspections in my area, big franchise company) decided that he couldn’t inspect the crawl space because it was inaccessible. This poor girl, who was in tears when I was talking to her, said her contractor had just come out of the crawlspace which he entered with no problem through a window. The contractor said that nearly every joist and beam had severe dry rot and needed to be replaced, which would cost many, many thousands.
Her question to me was, is this normally included in a home inspection and if so should it of been inspected seeing as her contractor had no trouble getting into the crawlspace. I told her about the SOP and that if it is “readily” accessible that it has to be inspected. I also told her to contact the OAHI as I know that this guy is a RHI. (and they’re the best in all Ontario :sarcasm: ) Not that they will do anything. I then told her to call P2P back…oops, I mean the inspector and let him know about the problem. She then told me that she is also contacting her lawyer and then asked if I would be available to look at the crawlspace.
Here’s my question to you everyone. Would you go and look at the problem and write up your findings. I am not sure how deeply I want to be involved with this, especially if it goes to court.
Understand, also that I had never heard of this lady before today. I was recommended to her by a realtor that knows me to be fair, honest and very thorough in my inspections. Any and all advise will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark
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