Home Inspector Left Out Some Important Items

[Anonymous]

I am a bit at a lost at this moment as I feel we should be ecstatic to have bought our first home. However, we are finding more and more issues. Our home inspector came with excellent recommendation but had missed a couple of major items including a rather lengthy horizontal crack in the basement (it was not hidden or anything). We are getting a structural engineer to come out to assess the situation but I cannot help but feel let down. I am afraid to find out what additional costs we will have to incur to remedy some of the missed issues. I know home inspectors are limited by liability but a basic crack in the wall seems like a really fundamental item to have left out in the inspection report. Any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

They don't get everything. And even if there is a crack, they may not consider it to be significant.

If it's a big crack, wouldn't you have seen it yourself beforehand?

[Anonymous]

Were either of you with him during the inspection? Did you see the crack at the time?

[Anonymous]

The crack is probably meaningless and doesn't merit a structural engineer.

[Anonymous]

Crack aside, I have found as both a buyer and seller that home inspectors are pretty worthless.

[Anonymous]

If it was noticeable did you say something during the inspection?

[Anonymous]

OP here. He had pointed out other cracks in parts of the house that he said was not significant. However, the one we found in our basement is supposedly significant. I did not see it because I was not looking for it. However, the contractor I brought in (post settlement) picked it up really quickly.

[Anonymous]

The contractor has an incentive for it to be a big deal--bc he can charge you big $$ to fix it. Keep that in mind and always get a second estimate.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I realize contractors have an incentive except this contractor was there for a different reason (fixing the crack is out of his expertise) and had brought what he saw to my attention.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to home ownership! This is pretty much exactly how it goes. One thing after another, and I DO love my house but there is always something going wrong with it and every other house I've owned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to home ownership! This is pretty much exactly how it goes. One thing after another, and I DO love my house but there is always something going wrong with it and every other house I've owned.

Yeah... but a 10K bill to fix a crack in the basement wall was not something I anticipated, especially since we have a other items to address as well. *sigh*

[Anonymous]

Similar thing just happened to us. We moved into our house a week and a half ago. We had 10 guests for dinner over the weekend. The garbage disposal became backed up, repair man came that evening and not only was the line backed up all the way out to the street (gross -- there's no way this could have been from us, we've only cooked a few times since moving in!) but he found a leak in the old, old garbage disposal, and improper pipe placement under the sink (it was placed too high for the sink that was used, causing improper drainage). WHY did the inspector not find this?

In addition, we gave my niece a bath in our guest bathroom, only to find that the tub does not plug/stop, so no water would fill up in the tub. Isn't this a basic item the inspector should have caught?? I can't help feeling cheated. What else did this guy miss???

[Anonymous]

Our house inspection was a joke. Even though our house has not had any major issues (knock on wood), I was very suprised by how superficial the inspection was. I can come to your house, plug stuff in, and flush all your toilets--and I'll do it for a lot less than what we were charged.

Our friends had a home inspection a few years, and they were given this huge binder with photos from their home inspector. It seemed so much more thorough than ours, but then they've had many more issues so far than we have. So I guess in some ways it's just a gamble, which isn't very comforting.

My conclusion is that if you're buying a fixer-upper or you encounter any "red flags" during the inspection (there are big cracks that the home inspector says are no big deal), consider bringing in a contractor before you buy the home.

[Anonymous]

We have had a ridiculous number of things come up that should have been obvious in our home inspection. I'm talking 10% of the homes value in the last year alone. Pain. I don't think there's much you can do about it aside from brush yourself off, make it a learning experience, swear to find a better inspector next time...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Crack aside, I have found as both a buyer and seller that home inspectors are pretty worthless.

I completely agree. I had this verified when an acquaintance of ours mentioned that he went to a 2 week course to be a certified home inspector. My husband was livid when he heard this and made an off-hand comment about the high price, yet not much training. The guy defended himself by saying that it's really competitive and if you don't pass the test, you don't get certified. DUH!!!!!!!!