We closed on our house at the beginning of June. A couple of weeks ago, we discovered that there is an issue with the flashing around the garage door and it is allowing rainwater to sit inside and soak into the wood under the siding. The wood is so damaged that it is crumbling. We need to remove the siding, remove the old boards and put up new boards and siding. It is going to cost roughly $500.
This was not mentioned on our inspection report at all. The contractor who came out to give an estimate, noticed the problem right away and pointed out that the flashing should have been installed under the siding so that water would be redirected and not have the chance to collect inside. Had we known about this issue, we would have asked the sellers to repair the issue. Knowing this would not have impacted our decision to buy the house in any way, but it would have been nice to know this was a problem.
I've been in touch with our inspector and am feeling very anxious about dealing with this. Our inspector's liability is limited to what we paid for the inspection ($505). On the one hand, I truly feel that he messed up, but then I wonder if it's really worth the trouble for $500. It's not an insignificant amount of money, but we can definitely handle it just fine.
Are we wrong to try to pursue this with him? If not, would you expect to receive the full amount of the inspection? Only part of it?
Ugh, that sucks. I probably wouldn't pursue it; I'd just pay the $500 and be done with it. I wouldn't recommend the inspector though, and I might mention it to whoever recommended him to you (our real estate agent hooked us up with our inspector).
Sadly, we did not go with our inspector's recommendation. I'm kind of kicking myself on that now. This guy has soooo many great reviews all over the place. I'm bummed.
I had already spoken to him before asking this and he asked me to email him a few pictures, which I did. He agrees that the issue is fairly obvious and asked a couple of follow-up questions. I guess we'll see how things go with the email conversation. I may drop it if it becomes too much to handle. Mostly I'm just wondering if the anxiety I'm feeling about this is worth the hassle.
I wouldn't pursue it. Inspectors do the best they can in the hour or so they have to look over a house. They're not going to find everything and IMO a $500 repair is not a huge oversight.
It sounds like a definite oversight on his part. I would bring it up to him. You might not get anything but at least you tried, right? Best case you can get some money back to go towards the repair.
When we bought our first house, our front porch light short out a few weeks in. Head up into the attic and find out the last owner had hooked an extension cord from the outside light to a hanging light in the attic and it burned out the wiring. Checked under the house in the crawl space a few days later when we kept smelling a weird smoky smell and couldn't find an issue in the house and he had two extension cords spliced together with duct tape to hang a light under there (he stored stuff in there for his construction job) and it was burning out the wiring underneath. Called our inspector about it, and he said, "oh well." and hung up. :/
I think inspectors have a lot of leeway with what they are held accountable to, so I would call to see what he says, but not expect to get very far. Hopefully it is remedied quickly and without a lot of hassle!
Post by cinnamoncox on Jul 17, 2014 6:16:40 GMT -5
If you've already brought it to his attention, and he agrees it's something obvious, maybe he will just split the cost. It's not that much $, and it's not out of the ordinary for them to miss something here and there. They're only there a short time (that's why they are only $505) and likely prioritize the larger stuff, so I would likely let it go. Of course see what he says, but I wouldn't worry about it anymore if dealing with it is causing you anxiety. Good luck.