Before I begin, it's important to note that the seller of my daughter's house in Longview ordered this inspection to help sell the house; it was not our own inspection, which had its own serious failures. The following, however, is my huge complaint about not finding an important deal-breaker when it was staring the inspector in the face. And again, the inspector we hired did no better:
When my daughter took ownership of the house, I went in with some of my own tools to do my own inspection, and before I even got out my circuit and voltage testers, I opened a door near the attic and saw knob and tube wiring, a common finding in old lath-and-plaster homes. Naturally, my first thought was that the house had been re-wired, and the old wires abandoned in the wall, as usual (almost always) the case, since knob and tube is beyond "not to code," but illegal to the degree that no insurance company will insure your house if there is evidence of working knob and tube. I had noticed adequate evidence of wall patching that indicated some degree of electrical upgrade, to include things like integrated smoke alarms. But when I took out my voltage tester, to my great disappointment and surprise, the knob and tube was hot. So then I took out my circuit tester and went around through the rooms of the house, testing all the outlets, finding out that possibly over half of the circuits are not grounded.
This part of an electrical test is really quite elementary, an easy thing to find--check the circuits, and look at wiring. Easy peasy. I am not an expert, just an experienced home handyman. When I read the HD report and studied the photos illustrating insulation problems, lo and behold, the knob and tube show up clear as day, proving that it was highly visible and should have gotten the attention of any inspector. Also, isn't circuit testing a part of home inspections? The inspector tested some circuits, finding out that there were a few missing GFCI outlets, but did not seem to catch on that some half the house is not grounded. Plus, again, there is the very visible evidence of knob and tube that went unnoticed. So, I have no right to ask for anything, since it was not my own attempt at due diligence. But it is *very* disappointing to see something like this go unnoticed by an inspector. (And, no, our inspector also fared no better.) It is going to cost thousands, and would have affected our interest in the house.
If I had paid for this inspection, I'd be demanding answers. read more
