A home inspection is part of the process that mitigates risk and confirms home value to the buyer. While we would love to be able to find all issues for clients, there are real limitations that affect any home inspection. The more our clients understand that, the better decisions they can make.
One limitation is visibility. Inspectors can inspect only what can be seen or operated at the time of the inspection. The conditions in a home will change over time and so will the visibility of those conditions.
One example of the latter can be seen in this case study.
We got an email from a client 8 months after the inspection. We learned the client was doing gardening, dug out the footer and removed gravel. That’s when the connection to the column was revealed as being cut.
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The connection was not visible during the inspection because it was covered. Inspectors can’t dig things out to inspect.
The client was quoted costs between $1200 and $1500 for repair. We tried to be helpful by figuring out if a less costly repair was possible. The client did end up having it repaired for about $200.
Click here to view the inspection report minus identifying details.