|
|
||||||||||
TESTIMONIALS |
|
||||||||||
GUIDING THOUGHTSHelp | Site Map | Privacy Policy© 2008 CMAC Inspection Services |
Here are some commonly asked questions about home inspections, linked to answers below.Why should I have a home inspection?Who performs it?Why do I pay for it instead of the Vendor or one of the Agents?How much will it cost?How do I arrange for it?How long will it take?What does it cover?Can I accompany the inspector?What do I receive?Return to TopWhen do I get your comments and report?What if I have a question about your report after the inspection?What if I'm not satisfied with your inspection?What if I find there's a problem that you missed?Why should I use your services instead of any other?Return to TopWhat if I have concerns about the house?Is the Seller's Disclosure Statement important?What about maintaining the house - do you make recommendations?When you recommend any improvements, do you recommend any companies for the work?When you recommend any improvements, do you provide advice?Return to TopWhy should I have a home inspection?A home inspection provides you with a realistic and impartial assessment of the condition of the house, together with suggestions for improvements that it may be wise to consider, and recommendations for maintenance. A home inspection provides you with most of the information required for you to answer the following questions:
Return to ListWho performs it?A home inspection should be carried out by a person trained in the art of performing the physical inspection of a house, and educated in the design, construction, and operation of all the systems that are to be found in a house. This person should be independent from anyone else involved in the sale and purchase, and should have no interest in and derive no benefit from any work of correcting any deficiencies identified, or improvements selected. Return to ListWhy do I pay for it instead of the Vendor or one of the Agents?When you pay for the inspection, you establish a relationship with the inspector – who then owes you a duty of being impartial, fair, honest, and realistic. The inspector works for you, the Purchaser, and for you alone. The inspection fee is not contingent on the sale of the house, so there is no reason to make the house appear better than it is, or to ‘overlook’ defects that may, if not explained properly, give you pause to reconsider the purchase. Return to ListHow much will it cost?Inspection fees from different companies or inspectors range from $199 to about $375, most often with GST extra. If you are very knowledgeable through in depth self education about houses of the type and age that you are buying, then a self- inspection or the lowest cost inspection might be acceptable to you. However, if you are like the majority of home owners and buyers, you will be far better served by arranging for a professional inspection. We believe that you very much get what you pay for, and while the cost of an inspection is the smallest cost in your purchase of a house costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, it can be one of your most valuable expenditures. Our intention is to have you feel sure that our inspection was the most valuable. Return to ListHow do I arrange for it?You can arrange an inspection by calling us directly at 519-317-0108. Tell us the address of the house to be inspected, and your preferred and any alternate times for the inspection. If the house is occupied by either owner or tenants, you or your agent might need to give at least 24 hours notice to the residents. Tell us your concerns, we listen! Let us have a complete list of any concerns that you (or your Agent) have about the house, and at the inspection show us a copy of the Seller's Disclosure Statement. We’ll pay special attention to your concerns during the inspection and when we discuss and explain our observations afterwards, whether your concerns are about specific issues in the house, or general issues such as having us make maintenance suggestions. Return to ListHow long will it take?An inspection of a typical two to four bedroom house takes between 2½ to 3 hours. We could do a shorter inspection by being very superficial and cursory, but we choose not to because it would give you a false sense of the condition of the house. Rarely will an inspection take less then 1½ hours, and then only for a house of very few rooms. Our inspection includes preparing the report, and discussing it, our observations, and our recommendations with you after the physical inspection. We do not consider the inspection completed until all your questions are answered to your satisfaction. Return to ListWhat does it cover?An inspection is a visual and cursory examination to assess the condition of the house – it is a snapshot of its condition on the day of the inspection. It is representative, not exhaustive; we cannot test every instance of an item, such as receptacles although we swing all doors and open and close all accessible and operable windows. It is visual, not intrusive or destructive. It uses sampling to infer the condition of the whole from examination of a few of the parts. By accepting these limitations, a very sound assessment of condition can be made in a short time and at reasonable cost. An exhaustive examination taking several days and costing thousands of dollars would provide very little additional useful information. Click on this link to view the standards for a home inspection established by the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), and the Ontario Association of Home Inspectors (OAHI).
We meet or exceed these requirements. Return to ListCan I accompany the inspector?We prefer that you accompany us throughout the inspection (and yes, you can look in the attic hatch if you want to; we might even ask you to do so, so that we can point out something to you!) We prefer this because we will provide information extra to the inspection itself that is relevant to the maintenance or operation of the house, and there will likely be insufficient time to enter all this in our report. Return to ListWhat do I receive?At the conclusion of the inspection you will receive a printed report setting out our assessment of the condition of the house, suggesting any improvements that we feel may be necessary or for which we foresee a future need, together with our recommendations for maintenance. The report is in an easily understood format, and written in plain English with any necessary technical words clearly explained. The format of the report consists of a summary, describing our overall assessment of the condition of the house, together with the important items that we have observed during the inspection. Subsequent sections deal individually with each if the major systems of the house (exterior, roof, foundations, electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning, and interior) and describe the features and condition of each system, together with recommenced improvements. We do not provide the typical ‘home owner’s manual’ as many do. In our experience these manuals provide almost no useful information on repairs or about maintenance, and are not read or used by most Purchasers. We choose to increase the value of our inspection because the inspection fee relates almost entirely to the value of the inspection and subsequent discussion, with a nominal cost for the report document. Return to ListWhen do I get your comments and report?We sit with you at the end of the inspection to review our report and to discuss our observations and comments. We often make additional clarifying notes in the report during this discussion, in answer to questions that you raise. We do not consider the inspection completed until all your questions are answered to your satisfaction. We leave the report with you. If there are any questions that we can’t answer when sitting with you, we will get back to you with the answers, usually within 24 hours. Return to ListWhat if I have a question about your report after the inspection?You call us to discuss them. You can call us for a telephone consultation about the inspection report after the inspection for as long as you own the house, and as many times as necessary. Most often we can answer your question over the phone, at no cost to you. If there is something that we need to see to advise you on work that you are planning to do, there may be a small charge for our visit. It is not unusual to ask questions after you have moved in, settled down, and begin considering any improvements, if you wish to have your memory refreshed about our comments or to have them explained again. Return to ListWhat if I'm not satisfied with your inspection?If you, or you Agent, are not satisfied with our inspection tell us at the time and tell us what dissatisfies you. If we can’t correct it, then we’ll waive the inspection fee. You would understand that under these circumstances we would be unable to leave the report with you. Return to ListWhat if I find there's a problem that you missed?Call us immediately! If the problem is within the scope of the inspection, we’ll come to your house at no cost to you, review the problem with you, and advise you about its cause and solution, just as we would have done at the time of your inspection. If the problem is major, and we agree that it existed at the time of the inspection, and we can’t resolve it to your satisfaction, then we’ll refund your inspection fee. We can accept no liability for repair, replacement, or damages of any kind howsoever caused or in any way related to, resulting from, or associated with our inspection. Return to ListWhy should I use your services instead of any other?We are in business to provide a service, but our passion lies in looking after our Customer, you, the Purchaser. We do this by performing a thorough inspection and providing you with information that you use to come confidently to a decision about buying the house; we ensure that you understand our information, and that all your questions are answered. This is what all home inspectors should claim. Our difference? We care, passionately. Return to ListWhat if I have concerns about the house?It is usual for Purchasers to have concerns about the house they intend to buy. These often range from questions about cracks in basement or garage floor slabs, or cracks in foundation walls, interior walls, and plaster ceilings; and questions as to the amount of insulation in the walls and attic. Sometimes issues such as the significance of signs of mildew arise. We ask you to make a complete list of all your concerns, before you call us to arrange the inspection, and to let us know what these concerns are at that time. In this way we can ensure that we have everything we need to properly look at your concerns during the inspection, and in addition, that we discuss them to your satisfaction when we present our report to you. Return to ListIs the Seller's Disclosure Statement important?The Seller is required to list in their Disclosure Statement lists everything that the Seller knows that could be considered a defect or problem with the property. Most Sellers won't disclose something that they only suspect, but don't know for sure, so there may be items that aren't listed that would be a concern if you knew about them. If the Statement isn't completely legible, insist on getting a clear copy, or on clarification of any illegible parts, as they may hide very important issues. Please bring a copy of the Statement to the inspection for us to read. Return to ListWhat about maintaining the house - do you make recommendations?Yes, during the inspection, and especially while looking at the exterior of the house, we will be making many recommendations that are appropriate to the house. Our recommendations often include tips on materials and techniques, as well as warning signs to look for on a seasonal basis. We will note many of the major recommendations in our report, however there may be insufficient time to note them all, bearing in mind that our recommendations are extra to the scope of the inspection and we do not wish to increase its cost to you. Return to ListWhen you recommend any improvements, do you recommend any companies for the work?Generally, we do not endorse or suggest any companies for any of the work to be carried out. On extremely rare occasions, when the work is highly specialised, such as injection sealing of cracks that leak in concrete basement walls, we may provide that name of a company that in our experience has provided superior performance in that field. However, we have NO association with any company carrying out any of this type of work. We will advise you as to which trade (roofing, electrical, plumbing, HVAC etc) you should be consulting. We recommend that you get three quotations, each describing the work to be done under the quotation, and specifying the type and quality of materials to be used, the warranty on labour and materials, the schedule for completion of the work, the payment schedule, who is responsible for disposal of garbage and waste and who is to pay for it, and the condition in which the property or premises is to be left at the end of the job. You will then be in a position to compare quotations, and to equalise them. Equalising the quotations means getting all the quotes on the same basis or on a directly comparable basis. As an example, three roofers may have quoted to re-roof your house with roofer A using 15 year shingles, roofer B using 20 year shingle, and roofer C using 25 year shingles; roofer A intends to ‘tear-off’ the existing roof (remove the existing shingles down to the wood roof structure) and have you provide the bin (and dispose of the old shingles), while roofer C intends to ‘tear off’ the existing roof and dispose of the old shingles as part of his work. To equalise these quotes, get all the roofers to quote on the same quality of shingles (such as 20 year life) and all tearing off and disposing of the old roofing, or all leaving it on, depending on whether there is only one layer of existing shingles (can be left on) or two layers (better removed). The revised quotations will then be directly comparable. When you have a quotation about which you feel comfortable, you should ask for several recent references for similar jobs (at least three should be provided) and then CHECK THEM OUT both by telephone (ask if the customers were satisfied with the work done, were there any problems or extra costs, was the job left clean, have there been any problems afterwards and how were they handled, would you use them again or recommend them?) and with a drive past (their work may be cheap and functional, but look slipshod, or not to the standard that you want). Only then can you make an informed decision. Return to ListWhen you recommend any improvements, do you provide advice?Yes, we discuss our recommendations in detail and will often discuss any alternatives of which we may be aware, to ensure that as far as possible our suggestions fit your plans for the house. We verbally ‘walk you through’ the improvement. Return to List |
