Expert: Russel Ray - 7/16/2008

Question
QUESTION: We had a home inspection done on May 21, the inspector found everything to be in working order, we moved into our condo on June 17, and on that day we tried to use the dishwasher, doesn't work. Okay we will replace. About 1 week later we turn on the central air, doesn't work, at all, although according to our inspection report it worked 2 weeks before. There was not anyone living in this condo for about 6 months, so nothing could have happened to the central air between the inspection time and the moving in time, same with the dishwasher. We also had to replace the hot water heater because of lime build up it was malikg loud noises and not making sufficient hot water. We were told that the inspection had a 90 day warranty but were not told until after the inspection that the warranty did not cover anything over 11 years old. The condo is 28 years old. Had we known that none of these itams worked we could have negotiated a lower price or had these items repaired by the seller before closing. We have tried to contact the inspector but he is avoiding our emails. I have reported him to the BBB but I don't know that they can do anything for us. Do you know if we have any recourse in this matter or are we stuck with a $5000 bill to fix the cooling system (if we fix the air the furnace will have to be replaced also) Thanks

ANSWER: Hey, Debbie.

I'm sorry to hear about your problems. Hopefully I can help you work through some things.

You said,
"We had a home inspection done on May 21, the inspector found everything to be in working order, we moved into our condo on June 17, and on that day we tried to use the dishwasher, doesn't work. Okay we will replace. About 1 week later we turn on the central air, doesn't work, at all, although according to our inspection report it worked 2 weeks before. There was not anyone living in this condo for about 6 months, so nothing could have happened to the central air between the inspection time and the moving in time, same with the dishwasher."

First, vacant residences present their own set of problems for home inspectors because the mere fact that they are vacant means that no one is around to take care of them. Depending on how long the property had been vacant prior to the home inspection, the home inspection itself could have caused problems which would not be noticed until after the home inspection. I have seen the air conditioning working just fine at the inspection, as did my Clients, but me turning it on after it had sat vacant for six months caused a bearing to fail, or the vibration caused a leak.

Homes are meant to be used, and when they sit vacant, especially for six months, all sorts of other problems can crop up. The most severe example is the "haunted house" that might have been in your neighborhood while you were growing up. No one was there to maintain the home and its systems, so it fell apart.

The following document is what I provide to my Clients whenever the property that I inspect is vacant: http://www.russel-ray.com/reports/Vacant%20residence.pdf.


You said,
"We also had to replace the hot water heater because of lime build up it was making loud noises and not making sufficient hot water."
That sounds like your water heater salesman simply wanting to sell you a water heater. What you are describing can, most of the time, be resolved by simply draining the tank and refilling it. Sometimes the thermostat is bad, or the burners and burner jets need cleaning. It would be rare, though, that the condition you describe requires a brand new water heater. However, the newer the water heater, the more efficient it will be.


You said,
"We were told that the inspection had a 90 day warranty but were not told until after the inspection that the warranty did not cover anything over 11 years old. The condo is 28 years old."
The 90-day warrant that many home inspectors provide, including me with some of my services, is like any type of insurance in that there is fine print that needs to be read, preferably before time contingencies have expired and hopefully before close of escrow.

At this point, since they were working on the day of the inspection, your regular home warranty should cover them. That's the warranty that is typically paid for by the sellers and runs for a full year. Quite often it is the least expensive policy they could find, meaning that it has much more fine print that needs to be read. However, remember these two things:

1 - Insurance companies are in business to make money, and they don't do that by paying claims. Their first line of defense is to deny your claim for any reason they can come up with, usually hoping 1) that you will give in and accept their rejection of your claim, and 2) that your cost to get an attorney to sue them will be more than your cost to just go ahead and pay for the replacement yourself. Unfortunately, they often are right on both cases.

2 - Review your warranty carefully, as insurance company accepted the condition of the warranted items condition when they accepted the premium payment. Had they done an independent inspection, they would have then had the opportunity to deny coverage, returning the premium and not issuing the policy. Since I presume that you have a home warranty policy and that the insurance company did not have an independent inspection done and did not return your premium, they accepted the condition as warrantable and issued the coverage. If they can't see that, a simple letter to your state's Insurance Commissioner can often help them see the light.


You said,
"Had we known that none of these items worked we could have negotiated a lower price or had these items repaired by the seller before closing. We have tried to contact the inspector but he is avoiding our emails. I have reported him to the BBB but I don't know that they can do anything for us."

Generally the BBB can't do anything for you, especially if he is not a member of the BBB. The BBB simply keeps track of complaints. They can try to force their members to resolve complaints, but the member can simply quit the BBB.

I'm ashamed to say that I'm a home inspector and that one of my own is not taking care of his Clients. That doesn't do anything for the industry that I work in.


You said,
"Do you know if we have any recourse in this matter or are we stuck with a $5000 bill to fix the cooling system (if we fix the air the furnace will have to be replaced also)."

Fixing the cooling system does not necessarily mean that the furnace has to be replaced. Here again it sounds like someone is trying to sell you something that you might not need. Remember that the economy is pretty bad right now, so everyone's trying to make a buck in the short term without necessarily helping people.

Depending on what State you're in, you might have some recourse. Your first task is to continue trying to make contact with the home inspector. If you can't get any satisfaction there, you might have to contact a real estate attorney to see what recourse you have in your State.

If you're in California, I might be able to provide more help to you privately and off line, especially if you're near San Diego. If so, email me at russel@russel-ray.com and I'll see what I can do to help.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Being first time home buyers, we didn't know about such things as a home warranty and it was never mentioned so I assume they did not get one. And the sellers probably knew about the central air not working and were relieved when the inspection didn't find anything wrong with it. The condo was empty for about 6 months but in Michigan that was in the winter time so the air would not have been used in that time anyway. Thank you for answering my questions but I don't think anything is going to help. We are just going to wait and hope that when winter gets here the furnace will work and then replace the central air next spring with our tax refund. We do have a window air conditioner so that will help. It's just depressing to think that you look forward to getting a new home(new to us)and then find all these things wrong. But we were in a mobile home so the worst day in the condo is still better than the best day in a trailer. Thanks again and have a nice day.

Answer
Hey, Debbie.

Don't give up yet!

Since you're in Michigan, do this for me: Go to http://www.nachi.org. Find their message board and register as a user. Post there the exact same question as your original question here. You'll get a lot of responses, and some of them might be ugly because some of them will have a natural tendency to come to the defense of their own. Partially they are right since they don't know the conditions at the time of the inspection and don't have access to the home inspection report. You'll get some people who'll say, "There are two sides to every story," which is why they'll want to see the report to see what it says about conditions at the time of the inspection and things that could not be done. For example, air conditioning manufacturers state that their systems should not be operated if the outside temperature is below 60 or 65 degrees (depending on the manufacturer). If the system was not operated because it was winter, then at least the home inspector should have said so in the report.

If you can get by those few responses of that sort, you can probably get a lot of good information that will help you. I'm the most active poster over at nachi.org, so when you post your question, tell them that Russel Ray told you to post it there for help.

Let me know here when you post it over there and I'll monitor it, perhaps even jump in and try to help once we get some thoughts from home inspectors who have to deal with winter conditions. Hopefully even some from Michigan.