Inadequate House Inspection - Do we have any options?
Bought a house in Oct '06.Within a month, we realized there were items
missed in the inspection.Some small things (bathtub drain cannot be
closed), but the latest item has me writing here:Racoons in the attic with
substantial damage (insulation, flexible heating ducts destroyed, .Animal
pro says they've been there months, at least.Inspector only looked in one
part of the attic, where the damage is not visible.The other portion of
attic is as easily accessible as the part he did check and the damage would have been easy to see.Is there anything we can do?This is going to cost us thousands of dollars to replace insulation & ductwork, plus cleanup costs.
Home Inspectors are usually not licensed. The government has
not stepped in to make them responsible. All home inspection forms have
safeguards where they are not responsible for errors. You got a bad one.
Home inspectors are not in the business of buying houses or repairing them
for their mistakes.
A bad realtor for not telling you about this. You may have a recourse by looking at the Seller is disclosure. If you don't have a copy of it, the real estate office does. The past owners KNEW about this, who couldn't hear a raccoon in an attic? You found out quick enough, they knew. Good Luck!
Some good here.
Also, look over ur inspection paperwork for all the exclusion language.
You will probably see something to the effect of ''not liable for areas
not accessible/visible.'' While that one line may not be good enough to
relieve the inspector from liability, I will wager that you will find more
language to waive further liability. As another suggested, the inspector will claim that the damage in the attic did not exist. Your timeliness will not work in ur favor since you state that you bought it in Oct06 & here we are almost 4 months later. Do raccoons nest in the winter? Might want to research that first before making too many allegations. I do a lot of rehab. New duct work & pumping insulation shouldn't cost you very much money. The materials are cheap. Sorry this wasn't a lot of good news, but hope that it helps provide some focus on the issues. Best of luck.
I beleive that the state attorney general is office has a
consumer affairs division. Also contact the Better Business Bureau.
You can try to sue the inspector in small claims court, but I
don't know what items the inspection covered.
But the bathtub drain seems minor, and he is just going to say that the
racoon damage was done after his inspection.
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