6. "New house? New experience for me."
It might surprise you, but just because a home is newly constructed doesn't mean it's problem-free. "Some 15% of the new homes I see have serious structural problems," says Paul King, a home inspector in the Charlotte, N.C., area. And some home inspectors simply have limited experience with new construction. (Of the 3.6 million homes sold in 2009, about 374,000, or roughly 11%, were new.)
And while each home should be checked for the same problems and defects, there are differences that make new constructions more difficult to inspect that existing homes, says King. A new home has no history to it. The water was never run, so small drip leaks may not have shown up just yet. And depending on how the weather was during construction, the roof might not have experienced rainfall. "So finding a roof leak in a new construction may be hard to detect," King says.
7. "I don't guarantee my work."
For many prospective homebuyers, a thumbs-up from a home inspector is the last bit of reassurance they need before they sign on the dotted line. That can be a mistake. When homebuyers get an inspection, they often expect that to be some sort of insurance policy, says Norman Becker, one of the founders of ASHI and author of "The Complete Book of Home Inspection."
Good inspectors should be able to pick up on evidence of problems — like a moldy odor or a rusted furnace — but they can't detect everything. A home inspection is merely a snapshot of a house's condition at a given moment. It's not a prediction for when a system (a boiler, for instance) might fail or when a structural component might fall apart.
A typical roof lasts about 20 years, says Becker. If your roof is 14 years old, an inspector can't necessarily say yours is going to last six more years, but he can alert the buyers to the typical life span of the equipment. A good home inspector should be able to give homebuyers a feel as to what costs are associated with certain items in the future, Becker says.
8. "Why would I want to have insurance?"
Many home inspectors agree that it's important to carry general liability insurance that covers them if, say, their ladder accidentally falls through a plate-glass window. But they're hardly unanimous when it comes to errors-and-omissions insurance — E&O, for short — the malpractice or professional liability coverage for home inspectors. E&O covers home inspectors who are proved negligent in their work — if they sign off on a heating system, for example, when the house has no furnace.
The problem is that while some see E&O as a marketing advantage, others see it as an invitation to a lawsuit. They think they're seen as having deep pockets, and some inspectors don't get the insurance just for that reason. "I think it's too risky without the insurance," Stone says. He recommends that homebuyers hire inspectors who have insurance. "But on other hand, I know some great inspectors who don't have it," he says.
9. "Building codes aren't my job."
It's a rare homebuyer who knows the finer points of his city's or county's building code. But, hey, that's what hiring a home inspector is for, right? Well, not quite. Just ask Elaine Arabatzis. Arabatzis hired a home inspector (one recommended by her real-estate agent — see item No. 3, above) to investigate a Boca Raton, Fla., house she was about to close on. The inspector dutifully pointed out a few things that needed fixing: A drain was clogged; the air-conditioning filters needed to be cleaned. But what the inspector failed to report was that a family-room addition to the 27-year-old, three-bedroom house had been constructed improperly — with just one electrical outlet in the entire room, short of what the code required. When Arabatzis complained, however, the company told her they hadn't been hired to inspect for code compliance. And indeed, the home-inspection report clearly states that the company is not responsible for code compliance.
Nevertheless, facing an estimated $30,000 repair to bring the addition up to code, Arabatzis thought she hadn't gotten what she paid for and sued the now-defunct home inspection company and the inspector who wrote up her report. (Three years later the parties reached a confidential settlement.)
If a home inspector were to look at every building code situation in addition to what he normally does, one day wouldn't be enough to do the inspection, Becker says. But if an inspector sees a new addition on a house or a new deck, he should recommend that the buyer to check to see whether there is a certificate of occupancy for that addition. If there is a certificate of occupancy, that means the building inspector checked it and approved it
10. "I've been known to cause more damage than I find."
It can happen to anyone — you bump into the china cabinet and Grandma's plate falls down. Some might say that causing some damage in a home is an occupational hazard that comes with being a home inspector. Technically, the inspection consists of a visual examination of the home, but that's not entirely realistic. "We have to touch stuff," says Bruce Ramsey, a home inspector in Raleigh, N.C.
True, a thorough house checkup requires hands-on poking and prying — and a little cosmetic damage is a small price to pay for knowing what shape your dwelling is in. But an inspector who damages woodwork or light fixtures should offer to pay for the repair.
"You're kind of like a guest in the house," says Harold Heimer, owner of Heimer Engineering, an engineering firm that performs home inspections in the New York and Long Island area. Inspectors generally shouldn't be taking things apart. In the course of an inspection, someone might need to move things around. But if everything is put together properly, there shouldn't be any breaks or nicks. "You have to be ever so cautious," Heimer says.
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