House Detective: Making the Most of Home Inspection

The House Detective:  by Barry Stone, Certified Home Inspector

Dear Barry: Since purchasing our home, numerous cracks have appeared in the walls. Some are as wide as half-an-inch. We’ve also noticed that patching has been done at many of these cracks, indicating that the sellers of the home were aware of the problem but had attempted to hide it. None of this was reported by our home inspector when we were in escrow. How serious do you think this problem is, and what should we do about it?  Thomas

Dear Thomas: Cracks as wide as half-an-inch indicate a major structural problem with the foundation system and/or instability of the soil. The fact that so much movement has occurred since the cracks were patched warrants immediate attention and concern. When symptoms such as these are intentionally masked in order to sell a property, some home inspectors are able to see through the concealment. But when cosmetic repairs are effectively done, it is sometimes possible to prevent discovery of building settlement by a home inspector.

Your first course of action is to notify all parties to the transaction by certified mail. Inform the home inspector, the sellers, their agent, and your agent that there are serious, undisclosed problems with the home and ask that they all come to the property to see what is taking place. And don’t perform any manner of repair work in the meantime. Inform all parties, particularly the sellers, that you want a detailed structural engineering report on the home. The sellers should accept whatever costs are necessary to repair the structural defects, as determined by the engineer. If no one is willing to cooperate, you should enlist the aid of an experienced real estate attorney.

The House Detective:  by Barry Stone, Certified Home Inspector

Dear Barry: You never do columns that recognize holidays. Even at Christmas time and the 4th of July, your articles are always about property defects, real estate disclosure, and home inspections. Now that Halloween is here, how about a spooky house story; something in keeping with the season. Surely you’ve inspected a few creaky old houses. How about it?  Bram

Dear Bram: Home inspections tend to be business-as-usual events: checking the foundations, roofing, plumbing, electrical wiring, etc. But there was one inspection that I recall with dread and discomfort; an inspection where property defects ceased to be of concern, where routine was over-shadowed by fear, where disclosures were eclipsed by a frenzied struggle to flee the premises. And it just so happened that this inspection occurred on the eve of Halloween.

The house was an old, neglected, two-story Victorian, with leaning fences, tangled vegetation, and dense vines engulfing the walls, windows, and roof. The property, in escrow as a probate sale, had been the subject of headlines when the owner had been found hanging from the rafters of the foyer. The police investigation had not determined whether death was from suicide or foul play, and the body’s subsequent disappearance from the local mortuary had unsettled the community.

The buyers and agent were unable to attend the inspection, but the agent had left a key under the mat. Pressing open the massive door, I entered slowly and commenced what I had hoped would be a routine inspection. But then, beneath the lofty ceiling of the darkened interior, I beheld the noosed rope, still attached to a high, dusty beam. A foul odor of decay permeated the stagnant air, and I recalled reading that the man had spent many days at the end of that rope before the neighbors had found him. The prospect of working alone in those dim, silent rooms unsettled me, and my foremost thought was to complete the job and get out of that ominous place.

A steep stairway descended to the basement, where I proceeded to inspect the old stone foundations, but the sounds of creaking timbers echoed throughout the building, disrupting my attention. And then there seemed to be a different sound, somewhere upstairs. At first, it blended with the incessant creaking of the structure, but the difference soon became apparent. This was not the sound of timbers. It was the slow but steady motion of footsteps. Someone was in the house. Hoping that it was the real estate agent, I called out, “Hello, is someone upstairs?” No one answered, but the footsteps continued down the hallway and stopped at the dark entrance to the basement staircase. I called again, “Hello, who’s there?” Again, no answer. Then, a shadow appeared on the stairs and moved slowly, silently downward.

The dark, disfigured form gradually took shape, his head laid awkwardly against his left shoulder. Yet my attention was drawn from this to some shadowy, indistinct object that dangled from his left hand. As he reached the basement floor, a putrid foulness filled the room, so that breathing became difficult and repugnant. Gripped with horror and disbelief, I was unable to move. But then, the eyes of that disjointed head found me, the lips formed a sardonic grin, dripping with thick gray saliva, and my mobility was wakened by a wave of terror. Clawing my way up the basement wall, I squeezed into the narrow space between the ground and the floor framing, seeking desperately for any way of escape. But the advancing form appeared atop the foundation wall and steadily pursued me into that dark crawlspace.

Trapped in a corner where the foundation walls joined, I realized with desperate finality that I could flee no further. Somewhere is the nearby darkness, I could hear that half dead form crawling toward me. Clutching at my flashlight, I was startled at the impending nearness of his face: the glare of cold eyes, the glint of gray teeth, the viscous fluid that dripped from grimacing lips — and that mysterious object gripped in his left hand.

Terror pounded in my chest as I faced those final, hopeless, remaining seconds. The feet between us became inches. His right hand gripped my ankle as he drew forward. Then his left hand extended the old gunny sack that he held, and the acrid smell of cold breath filled my face, as he cried, “Trick or treat!!”

The House Detective
by Barry Stone, Certified Building Inspector

Dear Barry: This is not a question as much as a comment. You occasionally discuss how home inspectors inspect gas-burning fixtures. In my opinion, home inspectors are not qualified to inspect gas appliances — period. Unless they hold the proper licenses to do actual work on those fixtures, they should not be inspecting water heaters, furnaces, or other gas appliances. You would better serve your readers by advising them to use licensed contractors for inspections of gas-fueled equipment. That way, the person doing the inspection will have the necessary knowledge and the proper license to make educated evaluations and reliable recommendations.  Jay

Dear Jay: If gas-burning fixtures should only be inspected by licensed plumbers and heating contractors, we will have to dismiss nearly all of the municipal building inspectors who inspect furnaces and water heaters on behalf of city, county, and state building departments. Those building inspectors, the ones who give final approval for newly-built homes, are code certified, but very few are licensed plumbing or heating contractors.

Repair skills are not essential when searching for defects. A doctor need not be a surgeon to diagnose a disease. Likewise, a competent home inspector can identify mechanical problems, without the expertise to repair them.

A qualified home inspector who inspects furnaces, for example, should be able to recognize inadequate fire clearances for furnaces and flue pipes, improper gas line connections, irregularities in the color and pattern of a gas flame, rust damage in burner chambers, visible cracks in heater exchangers, inadequate combustion air supply, back-drafting of combustion exhaust, and much more. In some cases, home inspectors have identified defects that were overlooked by the contractors and the gas company technicians who serviced the equipment.

Home inspectors who take their profession seriously participate in ongoing education in all aspects of real estate inspection, including the evaluation of gas fixtures. The annual education conferences offered by national and state home inspection associations typically include seminars whose instructors are licensed heating contractors or experts from major gas companies.

Contractor licensing is appropriate for those who install and repair gas-burning fixtures, but it is not essential for those who inspect these systems for specific defects involving function and safety.

The House Detective:  by Barry Stone, Certified Home Inspector

Dear Barry: We bought a home from a family trust. The previous owners had died, and their adult children were selling the property. As trustees of the estate, they were not required to disclose any defects. But a major ground drainage problem was revealed after we moved in, and we’ve learned from the neighbors that the trustees and their Realtor were fully aware of it. The main symptom has been water in the warm air ducts below the slab floor. This was discovered by the first termite inspector who checked the property; so the Realtor hired another termite inspector. The second inspector failed to disclose the water problem, and the agent only gave us the second report for disclosure. Unfortunately, our home inspector also missed the problem because he never looked into the floor registers. Now he tells us that removing the register grills is outside the scope of a home inspection. We’re trying to sort out who is responsible for this mess and would like your opinion in the matter.  Lars

Dear Lars: “This mess” involves two separate disclosure problems: Willful concealment by the sellers and their agent and professional negligence on the part of the home inspector.

The trustee/sellers may be legally exempt from disclosure requirements because they were not the occupants of the property. But there is more to be considered than the letter of the law. The intent of the law is to require disclosure of known defects. If the sellers knew about the ground water problem and its effect on the air ducts, disclosure should have been made on the basis of ethics and common decency, regardless of legal requirements.

The real estate agent is totally without excuse. The central point of ethics within the real estate profession is the requirement for full disclosure of all known defects. Exemptions for the sellers do not relieve their agent from this responsibility. If the agent was aware of a particular problem and failed to disclose it, that agent can be liable for damages and for legal sanctions by the state licensing authority. In this case, the agent is particularly culpable because the first termite report, the one that revealed the water problem in the ducts, was deliberately withheld from disclosure. Furthermore, that report can now be used as evidence against that agent.

Finally, there is the matter of your home inspector. He maintains that he is not required to remove grills from heat registers. Strictly speaking, this assertion is correct. Dismantling of building components is not within the scope of a home inspection. However, a truly competent home inspector makes a reasonable effort to inspect areas of potential concern. Air ducts beneath a slab should always be viewed as a potential moisture problem because they may be exposed to wet soil. Heat registers can be inspected quite easily by opening the louvers and shining a flashlight through them. Removing the grills is not necessary in most cases. However, floor grills are usually not fastened and often can be lifted as easily as opening a cabinet door.

All parties who might have provided disclosure failed to perform. The sellers and home inspector may have talking points to the contrary, but no one, particularly the agent, can walk away clean from this situation.