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General Limitations to the Inspection and Report

We will ask you to read, understand, and accept the following general and specific limitations to our inspection, and we'll explain to you these limitations to both the inspection itself and to any liabilities to us resulting from it, and you must agree to those limitations as conditions for us to carry out the inspection.

Limitations to our liability
You must agree that our overall liability to you for any reasons shall be limited to the amount of our fee. We'll explain that if your real estate agent or you are not satisfied with the inspection, we will not accept your fee, and you won't be given our report. We'll explain that if there is any oversight or omission in our inspection that becomes apparent, and which we cannot resolve by providing reasonable additional consultation at no charge to you, we will refund our fee as your only claim against us and our only liability to you. The report is for your sole use alone, and you will not provide it to, nor permit it to be relied on by any third parties for any purpose.

Our observations will be limited
We prepare our report with reasonable skill and care based on limited observations made during our visual and non-invasive inspection of the subject property. If we can’t see it, we can’t comment on its condition, and because we also examine only a few samples representative of multiple items, we don’t claim that all deficiencies are observed and noted.

We also don’t claim that there will be no additional defects, visible or hidden, when you take possession. Our inspection is a snapshot of the condition of the property at the date and time of inspection, and the condition could change for better or worse before you take possession.

Possible improvements to your house
We may suggest improvements based on our opinions of condition, and considerations of safety; these are also limited by what we can see. Our opinion of the probable cost of improvements is provided for budget guidance only; however we strongly suggest that you get several competitive prices for any work that you intend to have done, as prices can change considerably up and down with time.

You might discuss with us changes or improvements that you are considering to make the property more suitable for your personal use. Our responses will be general considerations and concepts about these improvements, and can’t account for any possible hidden conditions that could affect the work, or the very preliminary nature of the scope of work as discussed.

We don't comment on compliance
Our inspection does not include review of or comment on the property’s compliance with the Ontario Building Code, local zoning requirements and regulations, or any other government requirements; or whether the property can be insured or a mortgage obtained for it.

We recognise that you hire us to do an inspection to reduce your risk in buying the property. We use our best judgement in arriving at our professional opinion as to its condition, and in providing as much information as we reasonably can to guide you in its maintenance and with any improvements you discuss. However we cannot eliminate or assume any part of your risk, and we do not claim to find every defect that you would want to or should know about.

We make no comment on the fairness or value of the purchase price of the property; our opinion is that a fair price is one agreed to between a willing Buyer and a willing Seller and that we take no part in establishing what it is.

Overview
Your report provides you with general information about the condition of the property on the day that we inspected it. We also may include suggestions and recommendations for maintenance to keep up its value, and discussion of any possible changes you mentioned that you might make to improve its suitability for your personal use. Components of a house can fail at any time; we’ve all experienced electrical equipment that worked perfectly the last time we used it, burning out when it was next switched on. Many components of a house are similar, although others fail gradually with warning signs for those who look regularly. We attempt to advise you of many of these signs during our inspection.

Terminology
We use the following terminology in our report and our comments and explanations are based on what we have observed and are applicable to the time of our inspection.

Functional or adequate: observed item performing its intended purpose during the inspection
Good Condition: no defects were observed that would be anticipated to need repair or replacement within one year.
Fair Condition: condition is marginal or item is near the end of its anticipated life span,, and repair or replacement anticipated within a few years.
Poor Condition: observed item barely performing its intended purpose, or very near the end of its anticipated life span, repair or replacement anticipated likely within the year.
Minor Repair: repair to improve the performance of the observed item is recommended.
Major Repair: replacement of the observed item is recommended within a short while to prevent possibly greater expense or damage resulting from its failure.
n/a: not applicable, or not installed; not pertaining to the subject property.
Not Accessible, or Not Inspected: self explanatory, item to be observed was not accessible, often due to furniture or belongings, sometimes due to inadequate, unsafe, or inoperable access; or was excluded from the inspection scope.

Discussion of Report
We discuss the report fully and in detail with you to ensure that we have explained all your concerns about the house. We do not consider these discussions complete until you are satisfied that we have explained all your concerns and answered all your questions about the property. These discussions are an integral part of our inspection, and because of time limitations there may be many points discussed verbally but not written in the report. As these explanations and suggestions can’t clearly be passed to a third party, you agreed not to provide the report to, nor to permit it to be relied on by any third parties for any purpose.

Specific Limitations
Weather: Snow/ice/rain/ can limit the visibility of the exterior inspection. Lack of recent heavy rainfall can limit observation of water leakage into the basement. The outside temperature may be too low to safely test any air conditioning, or too high to adequately test the heating system.

Accessibility: Access to the areas may be obstructed for various reasons, and visual inspection will therefore be limited or may not be done. The basement, garage, closets, main floor closets, bedrooms, attic and or crawl space access may be obstructed, inaccessible, or sealed.

Exclusions: Certain items are NOT included in the scope of our inspection, including without limitation:

swimming pools and related equipment, spas or hot tubs, appliances, central vacuum systems, heat exchangers and heat pumps, security systems, intercoms, window air conditioners, septic tanks, wells, docks and other marine structures, underground storage tanks, sub-grade or enclosed plumbing piping and drains, hazardous material including without limitation UFFI, asbestos containing material, lead based paint, mould and fungus, environmental matters, air quality, allergens, vermin and insect infestations including wood destroying insects, building code compliance, zoning, by-law and other regulatory compliance.

Our inspection is non-invasive: we don’t drill or bore holes in any part of the house, enlarge existing openings or change the physical characteristics of the house in any way.

Personal possessions of the homeowner
We respect the privacy of the owners of the house, and do not disturb their personal possessions, nor do we subject them to dirt such as may fall from an attic hatch located in a closet, in which case if the owner has not emptied the closet before the inspection, we won’t disturb their clothing and therefore can’t inspect the attic. We recommend that you note the location of attic hatches, and if their location is in a closet that is in use, we suggest that you ask your agent to request that the closet be emptied for the inspection. We don’t lift carpets and rugs, move furniture or boxes or other obstructions, or take apart any equipment.

If we can’t see it we’ll usually note that restriction on our inspection.

These restrictions are generally part of the ASHI standards for any inspection.

Condominium considerations
If your property is part of a condominium, the common elements, including any exclusive use common elements, are the responsibility of the Condominium Corporation. Unless you have contracted with us to inspect the common elements and comment on the Reserve Fund, any comments we make on common elements will be general comments only as to apparent maintenance standards based on very cursory observations made in passing, and may not be recorded in this report.

Lastly, we recommend that you ask the Seller (through the agents) to advise you whether they are aware of any possible defects or potential problems with the property that might not be visible, and if so, to disclose and describe them.