Many factors affect the integrity of a home or property inspection. These are factors like whether the property being inspected is a new home or an occupied home. See, a property inspector will go about his or her business in accordance to the state of the property. When these factors are not considered and taken care of accordingly, issues are likely to come up, resulting in a poor property inspection exercise. Below we look at a few mistakes, which should be avoided when carrying out a home inspection.
Non-Disclosure
Non-disclosure can affect a property inspection in two instances. The first instance is where a family or an individual already occupies a home but needs an inspection to make repairs. The occupant of the home fails to inform the inspector of existing problems that he or she knows of. Now, the inspector will unnecessarily spend time inspecting these areas, resulting in wasted time. If the property inspector charges by the hour, this simple oversight will result in an increase in the cost of inspection.
The second instance where non-disclosure affects the home inspection is when a person wants to buy a new property and has a property inspection done. The seller is obligated by law to disclose any defects that he or she is aware of to the buyer, before an inspection is done. If the seller fails to disclose this information, and it later emerges that he or she knew, the buyer can sue for having had to pay an inspection to discover those problems. Trouble would have been avoided if the seller had disclosed the existence of defects.
Having the Inspection Done in an Occupied Property
The best way to have a thorough inspection is when there are no occupants in the property. Property inspectors need to be given space and time to do their work. When the family is present, the inspector will tend to do the inspection as quickly as is possible and leave. This more often than not causes him or her to miss some defects. It is therefore recommended that a family move out for a few days to allow a property inspector time to do his or her work. The best way to go about this is schedule inspections when the family is way on holiday. If the property is a rental, the property manager should schedule property inspections when a new tenant has left and the new one is yet to move in.
Failing to Carry Out Regular Inspections
Property inspections should not be a one-time affair; they should be regular. Failure to carry out regular inspections results in degeneration of a building since small defects that could have been detected and dealt with early become big issues. Consider a case where a small leak in the plumbing fails to be noticed in time. The leaking water then causes the walls to grow fungus and soon occupants are falling ill. Furniture is destroyed and the water bill rises. To avoid such a situation, it is best that a property owner or manager schedules regular property inspections.
