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I'm sure every inspector has had that desperate call from a potential client something to the effect of "I hired this contractor to do an addition on my house, now the roof leaks, it's been patched...". Sound familiar, I get this all the time. Just the other day I received such a call, during the inspection it was clear to me that the client had experienced a series of frustrating engagements as follows:
- The General Contractor that was hired for the project rarely supervised the job. He reportedly sent unqualified, unlicensed workers with illegal citizenship status. This condition led to multiple code violations and poor craftsmanship.
- The city Building Inspector had never performed a visual inspection of above the roof line. All of us contractors are guilty of this scenario; The city inspector shows up, he knows you from 20 plus years of working on the same type of projects, in mutually varied capacities. Consequently the Building inspection has now just turned into a coffee break and social hour catching up on the latest family status, how is business going, etc... At the end of this interaction the City inspector signs your card and off he goes, having never physically inspected the subject item.
- The lender hired a "Low Ball" inspector to perform progress inspections for the phased loan draws. In fact the inspector had absolutely no hands on experience in the trades. He had an ICC certification that he obtained from taking a class and passing a test. From a book smart perspective the inspector was qualified. From a practical stand point the inspector was very much unqualified.
You can see the series of unfortunate events, I believe that this scenario is all to common in the industries involved. The housing boom scam we all are now suffering economically from produced thousands of "Fly by Night" inspectors, appraisers, contractors, brokers, etc... Well these people are still out there and they are actively "Low Balling our potential clients.
Here are a few photos from the subject inspection:
Basically this roof was installed by an unqualified contractor. The client is left out in the cold unless a "Qualified Inspector" performs a proper inspection and presents a valid report, giving the client a professional opinion and legal document to argue his case. At the very least the client now has a defined course of action to correct the project shortcomings.
As professional Inspectors, Real Estate Agents, Brokers and lenders - we have a duty to educate our clients. Through education our future clients will make educated decisions while selecting a fully qualified team to PROTECT their interest. I believe that if we focus on EDUCATION, that if we ADVOCATE as opposed to PERSUADE and COLLECT MONEY, our industry will thrive in the long run!
