By Parul Joshi
Reporter
Published: November 13, 2008
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Today at 6 we introduced you to two families who had nightmare home buying experiences.
From moisture issues, to severe water damage, the Grays and Hinrichs family say they had so many problems they had to move out of their dream homes.
In both instances the homebuyers thought they were doing everything right. Both used home inspectors and used their reports to make their final decision to buy. Their inspectors stand by their initial findings leaving the home owners on their own to pick up the pieces.
In Part 2 of our I-Team Investigation we explain what home inspectors can and canât do when it comes to guaranteeing your home and what everyone needs to know about the process.
Shon Wicker was hired to re-inspect the Hinrichsâ home a year after they moved in. He says, âThereâs no doubt that the problems were pre-existing prior to the sale, the short time they owned the property was simply not enough time for that damage to have occurred. It was there and it was covered up.â
Structural issues, rotting wood, and extensive water damage, just a few of the problems found⦠but Wicker says even though it is obvious now those problems were there before the sale, he cannot say whether the Hinrichsâ first home inspector did anything wrong.
He says, âIn certain cases homeowners rely too much on inspectorsâ¦the fact is, homeowners need to better educate themselves prior to making a purchase.â
We contacted the Hinrichsâ original inspector; he says citing licensing rules, he canât speak about this or any other specific inspection but says in general:
âI make perfectly clear to all of my clients that what I do is a visual inspection only. This means what I can see I will inspect and report. This and other information is made clear in the written agreementâ¦I never make the recommendation to any client whether I think they should or should not purchase the property. â
Meanwhile⦠the Hinrichs family is renting a second home in Onslow County and facing foreclosure on the house they own but cannot live in.
The Grays of Greenville, who have now moved on, faced a similar disaster: âThis whole experience was just devastationâ¦â The Grays lost tens of thousands of dollars and learned a costly lesson. Alice Gray says, âWeâve learned to be more thorough on checking out anybody youâre purchasing a home from, or any type of business.â
Attorney Jim Wall works for legal aid of North Carolina in Wilmington. His team is representing the Hinrichs family and many others in similar situations. He has serious advice for anyone buying a home: âYou must not just rely on inspectors, you need to be willing to get dirty, you need to crawl under the house and see if thereâs any rotten wood, or any dampness and if there are any places under the house you canât get to, that is a warning sign, be very, very wary.â
In addition to hiring a home inspector, Wall says hire experts to examine specific areas of the house: âHire a plumber to inspect the plumbing, hire an electrician to inspect the electrical system and a heating and air expert to inspect the heating and air unit. These are all expensive, but for most people this is the biggest investment youâll make in your whole life.â
Don Warner is Executive Director of the North Carolina Home Inspector Licensure Board under the North Carolina Department of Insurance. He says, âOur home inspectors are great people, theyâre educated, theyâre trained, they have experience, but theyâre generalists.â
Warner says before you hire a home inspector do some research. Buyers need to read the Standards of Practice and Rules home inspectors are expected to follow.
Warner says, âItâs what the house is on the day we inspect it and as we walk away and hand you the report and drive down the street something could happen. A home inspection was never intended to guarantee anything in the home...no guarantees at all.â
You heard him right; no guarantees at all. Once the board licenses a home inspector, the inspector is free to inspect homes, with no oversight.
Reporter: âThereâs no way of telling whether an inspector is doing a good job, if theyâre abiding by the rules?â Warner says, âThatâs a fair statement, the licensure board is never certain every inspector is complying by the standards. The tell-tale sign is when the board receives a complaint.â
But for the Grays, Hinrichs family, and countless others like them, all the complaining in the world doesnât get their homes fixed or their familyâs finances back on track.
And if youâre wondering how effective complaining is with nearly 4,000 home inspector licenses issued since 1996, only 92 have ever been disciplined, with less than 5 percent of those inspectors losing their license.
By the way the home inspector licensure board recently began issuing random report audits to home inspectors. The point of this story is not to bash home inspectors. Everyone I spoke with says you need to have a home inspected and that most do a good job. The bottom line is, you are the one ultimately responsible for the home you buy and an inspection is nothing more than a snap shot in time. And from everything I have seen it is well worth a few hundred extra dollars spent to get specialists involved.
If after an inspection, repairs are done to the house you are about to buy, make sure you get proof of those repairs in writing. Donât accept peopleâs word no matter how trust worthy they may seem. This is obviously a complicated issue; to help you sort it all out we have several resources to help guide you through the process. Just go to our homepage and type in the keyword: âInspection.â
Reader Reactions
Posted by ( babygirl07025 ) on November 14, 2008 at 10:45 pm
mr.mathis,
they did interveiw a home inspector his name was shon wicker he was our 2nd inspector. we did check out our inspector before he was picked. there are many other issues with our home than shown if you listen to what they are saying you would hear that. there are grading issues plumbing and electrical issues and structure problems. our inspector isnt the only one thats being looked at. the news is only 30 mins long theres alway more to the story then mets the eye.
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Posted by ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) on November 14, 2008 at 3:53 pm
As a home inspector, I am the President of the Northeast Chapter of NCHLIA (North Carolina Home Inspectors Assoc.), the largest professional inspector association in the state. I am also a member of the board of directors of NCHLIA.
I am concerned that your reporter did not interview an inspector and while the reporter said the story was not to bash inspectors, it certainly trod on the line.
The overwhelming majority of inspectors work hard at their profession and provide good services within the context of their mandate and their compenstion.
I would take issue with your last expertâs opinion that a buyer should hire each specialist separately. The financial burden would increase to the point that it just wonât happen and in 90% of cases, it would be unnecessary.
Should a buyer be prepared to get dirty? Absolutely. They should attend the inspections and follow as closely as comfortable. Should they be prepared to hire technical experts as per the inspectorâs recommendations? Yes.
But what most buyers fail to do is any sort of research into the inspector chosen. Most are chosen for the buyer by the real estate agent and many are chosen on price. The cheapest guy gets the job. I am confident that in both of the cases sited in the report, neither buyers vetted their inspectors to any degree. And they did not ask for proof of insurance that could provide some form of protection against errors and omissions.
But the most important point I want to make is this: Not all that is evil is visible. We do an evaluation of the property as it appears to us on the day we arrive. On occasion-and rarely, I might add-hidden defects will be discovered. When those defects are discovered, you must go to the source of the defect-the builder of the home-not the middle man.
Jeffrey Mathis
http://www.wnct.com/nct/news/local/article/inspector_investigation_at_1100_pm/23588/