When you build a new home, everything is supposed to be perfect after all city inspectors have signed off. So why are some homeowners around the metro facing big repairs and even bigger bills?
Armed with hidden cameras, the NBC Action News Investigators followed the very people you trust to make sure builders are doing it right. But what we uncovered could be putting your safety and your biggest investment on the line.
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On the job site the builder is ultimately responsible for the quality of a home, but it's the City Code inspectors who are charged with catching mistakes. Our investigation exposes those inspectors aren't doing what you think and leaving homeowners to foot the bill.
"It was mind boggling at first," said homeowner David Liles, who moved into his new northland home in 2004 and had through-the-roof utility bills. "We were clued in by another resident: 'have you looked in your attic?' It never crosses your mind that your house doesn't have insulation in it."
The home passed every code inspection the city did. Now Liles is looking at a $61,000 repair bill for everything he said inspectors missed.
"I would have thought that the city -- that they would have caught that," Liles commented.
So did we. So we poured through home inspections from some of the fastest growing areas of the metro – Overland Park, Lee's Summit, Kansas City, Shawnee, and Leawood. What we uncovered might make you question the safety of the roof over your head.
"The code inspectors have too many inspections that they have to do in a day to meet their quotas," said expert Dan Bowers, a code certified private inspector with 25 years on the job.
"Do I see any way possible that the average code inspector could complete more than eight to 14 houses a day?" Bowers asked. "No."
But the data provided to NBC Action News by the cities shows inspectors are eeking out many more homes than that. In Lee's Summit, one inspector signed off on 62 inspections in one eight-hour day.
"That's pretty high," said Lee's Summit Codes Administrator Mark Dunning.
But we know why. Undercover, armed with a stopwatch, we followed inspectors to find out how much time they're actually spending looking over your largest investment.
One Lee's Summit inspector caught us off guard when he walked up to one home, then immediately walked away, tried a locked garage, and walked back to the truck. She was not able to get inside the house for two and a half minutes, but approved the temporary certificate of occupancy anyway.
In a different house, a different inspector grants a certificate of occupancy after spending less than two minutes inside.
Dunning admits inspectors are not doing what homeowners think.
"To say that we inspect for every provision of the code, I can't sit here today and tell you that we do that," he said.
In Kansas City, we barely had time to start the stopwatch before one inspector hopped back in his truck, which may explain why Kansas City had the highest one-day total inspections – 231 by one inspector in one day.
On that day, the inspector simply drove by the homes to check them out, but KCMO Codes Administrator Greg Franzen said speed is not compromising safety. Liles doesn't buy it.
"That's a serious safety issue," he said.
Liles home passed all inspections, including one for his deck posts. An inspector said they were the required 36-inches deep, but when Liles took the deck apart because it was swaying, "some of them were only 11 inches in the ground."
When asked if that met code, Franzen said, "No, the pier holes should be 36 inches in depth. We'll certainly look into that."
To check out your builder:
Better Business Bureau
Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings
To see if your builder is involved in lawsuits:
Jackson County Courts
Missouri Courts
To see a copy of your inspections (KCMO Only)
City of Kansas City
http://www.kshb.com/kshb/nw_investigators/article/0,2678,KSHB_21759_5145823,00.html
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