What did the home inspector say when you were buying the house?

The home inspector presented a list of small repairs that he recommended. I JUST went back into my computer files to find his report. NOTHING in there about the vent or the fixtures. Tiny things like the bathtub is missing the stopper, Something needs to be caulked, things like that. The only major thing he found is that the HVAC unit was old, but he couldnt tell how old and he recommended it be replaced, which they did.

Do you have any recourse against the home inspector? That’s definitely not the service you paid for.

I’m always surprised by US people speaking of leakibng toilets and wax rings. Here if you mentinoed a wax ring for a toilet most people would look at you like you had a second head, because they don’t exist here. Toilets are designed to sit on the floor (maybe with a caulk of silastic around the bottom) and they can’t leak. At one point when we replaced our toilet, we didn’t bolt it down for quite a while, and you could actually rock it side to side with no leaking. Why they don’t have these in the US is beyond me, considering how many problems the wax ring version causes.

Our current house belonged to the minister of a local church. I think they had some kind of busy bee to ”fix it up” when they decided to sell it and ”handy” members of the congregation (and I use the term very loosely) all pitched in with bits and pieces from their own renovations.

Electical wiring was very idiosyncratic. Things that should have been on the same circuit weren’t. It made isolating a faulty circuit a guessing game. (Over the years as we’ve renovated this has all been fixed.)

All of the woodwork was painted a horrible olive green- very badly. Most of it looked like the Sunday school class had been put in charge of the painting. The kitchen cabinets were clearly originally in a differently sized room, and there were awkward open, inaccessible spaces between the cabinets and the wall. The sink was not the one from the cabinets, but should have been set down into the front edge of the cabinet with the steel of the sink wrapping down to be the front edge of the countertop. Instead it was just perched on top with a flat strip of barely painted wood run around the edge. It was a constant cleaning nightmare.

There was a wood fired hot water system- rather old fashioned but effective and cheap to run at the time. Unfortunately it had been placed so that if one person was in the toilet (these are generally in a small room of their own instead of in the bathroom) and another person was stoking the HWS, the person in the toilet couldn’t get out until the stoker was finished.

I’m not sure where the carpets in the bedrooms came from, but going by the patched sections, I’m guessing it was a different house.

They had enclosed the back porch to make a room, but there were no eaves on it. As a consequence, if there were any leaves blocking the downpipes and there was a thunderstorm, water would sheet down the inside wall and fill the room, which had a floor about 6” lower than the rest of the house.

The kicker was when we decided to replace the constantly sagging and breaking plasterboard and lath ceiling in that room. On taking it down, we discovered that what was mostly holding it up was the electrical wiring.😳

It’s all pretty normal now 😁

We bought a house " as-is " from a foreclosure. We knew it had problems, but we were going to renovate it for rental. One of the most curious things was the orange extension cord in one bedroom. Turned out, they had cut off one end, wired it to a ceiling fan, then ran the cord through the attic, down a wall, and plugged it in. My DH was slightly speechless. 😳😳

This is the best thread title ever. 😆

My SO is a municipal employee and oversees the unit that does building permit inspections. The stories are unbelievable. You can (almost) forgive a DIY Doofus as not knowing any better. Professional contractors can be equally...let's call it creative.

Home inspectors ALWAYS find just enough to justify what they charged the buyer. And most often its "HVAC could use a proper clean out". Unless of course it's OBVIOUS like when DD #1 paid these guys and was told two times, well the home is listing/sagging and is all but falling down. THOSE inspections were expensive with no way to re-coop the cost but saved her thousands in the long run. Unless a fixture is blinking or sparking there's just no way an inspector would note fixtures hung improperly. I've never heard of anyone giving all fixtures in a prospective buy a bit of a tug. It's just not a thing. Some things--like an addition are covered in code and permits. Those ought to be provided when a property is put on the market. It's part of the dance. Home sellers slapping paint up, making an area rug purchase, rearranging furniture to hide the flaws. Buyer beware and given how fast homes have been selling it gives buyers little to no chance to be educated about a prospective purchase. Sometimes one can get a hint in how the realtor writes up the ad for the home, "Lovingly restored" signals a lot of DIY.

Ally, we have a good friend who used to be the chief building inspector in our town. I could listen to his stories for hours.

Yikes! If you have any light fixtures hanging over some place you spend a lot of time like in bed or on the sofa, I'd give them a yank to see if they're secure before they fall! Sounds to me like that house is going to continue to be one of surprises!

Sounds like your happy to have found the problems before something really bad happened...and a brother in law that's so handy...how awesome is that!

All the houses we've purchased have had issues. Builder-Bob must have lots of relatives. ha ha

When mother moved to senior living and we sold her house for her, we hired an inspector ourselves before listing it to have an idea what one might find - none of us had ever lived in her house of more than 30 years. We found the stove, microwave, refrigerator and family room TV all plugged into the same power strip behind the refrigerator. No range hood ever but it had been fine for her - she microwaved and rarely actually cooked anything living alone. 😁 The fans for both showers vented directly into the attic space and not out of the house....list went on and on.

But Amy, I think your DIY Doofus had lived in the house my sister bought. It's on a nice 4.5 acres with creek, not new build, someone had been living there many years. If you open the formal front door from the living room, you are greeted by a drop of about 3'. No stairs, no entry, no walkway leading to it through the yard even. Back door through the mudroom was more convenient to detached garage and parking and I suppose no one had ever used it? Could not have used it. I won't even get into the wiring other than to say it was terrifying. They did have a surprise when they decided to reroof and replace the kitchen skylights - they found one wall of the kitchen (had a major addition done at some point) was supported by a wooden deck off the dining room and not a proper foundation. None of this came up during their home inspection and I still can't believe a bank allowed a mortgage on that house without some fixes having been done.

Professional contractors can be equally...let's call it creative.

Yep. Contractors are people who call themselves contractors. Licensed means they paid a fee to the municipality, and at least in my area means that they passed an exam that covers things like how to write a contract, nothing to do with their abilities. So unless you’re getting a truly licensed tradesman, say an electrician or a plumber, you’re likely getting a DIYer who thinks highly of himself. Inspections are similarly a joke. Partially because they’re supposedly not allowed to move anything. Have water damage? Hang a tapestry over it. Their reports include all sorts of legalese which protects them from errors and omissions. And when you buy a house the seller offers an essentially mandatory option of accepting a whopping $500 credit for unexpected repairs in lieu of their obligation to disclose known issues.

Combined, it makes home-buying a scary proposition here in NY. You’re lucky if you don’t get burned.