New Home Warranties Are Useless Unless… You Know There are a Construction Errors!
Some mistakes a homeowner can see. Although, sometimes it requires looking in a crawl space, the attic or on the roof.
The errors in the top row of pictures you can easily see, but, except for the Street Number, you might have missed them because of where they are. More importantly, what about things that only an experienced inspector with extensive building experience and licensing specifically in New Residential Structures would pick up?
These are just a few examples of why having a home inspector with the proper training and certification is important for your newly constructed home.
Unseen defects in attics, crawlspaces, and atop roofs can lead to serious problems that will require expensive repairs. Doesn't a trust but verify approach make a lot more sense in dealing with your builder?
Why Your Costs Could Far Exceed Your Investment in a Home Inspection
The following examples are from people who didn’t have an inspection on their newly built home. It was caught when they went to sell the house or when a problem arose.
- Attic mold remediation due to uneven insulation and insufficient ventilation; cut TJI joist in basement; and damaged truss framing: house was four years old and the cost to remediate and repair was almost $8,000.
- An incorrectly mounted toilet flange in a hallway bathroom caused unseen damage to the sub-flooring, I-joist, and finished flooring. It also created a mold problem that had to be remediated in the crawl space. Even though they only had the house a couple of years, the cost for remediation and repair for the sellers was over $4,000.
- A severely damaged truss required evaluation by a structural engineer and repairs—costing the sellers almost $3,000 in concessions to get to closing (it had been run over by a vehicle and was installed instead of replaced).
- An improperly cut I-joist (to accommodate routing of a plumbing drain line) was found during the buyer’s home inspection, and it cost the sellers almost $2,500 to correct before going to closing.
- An HVAC air handler in the attic failed to have a float/safety switch installed. The drain pan outlet/condensate drain pump was clogged by cellulose insulation. The entire living room ceiling had to be replaced less than two years after moving in.
These would all have been paid for by the builder under the warranty if they had had a home inspection done.
We have yet to find a single home that did not have enough defects to justify our flat fee.
What Builders Don’t Want You to Know
- Builders often prohibit third-party inspections to transfer error costs to the owner.
- Non-trade subcontractors are constantly changing, with no formal training.
- Every new build has defects, each company has an acceptable error rate.
- Delaying or ignoring warranty claims is usually incentivized.Limitations of Most Home Inspectors
Limitations of Most Home Inspectors
- Many are working for a larger company & have no construction experience.
- Delaware provides little training oversight and has no means to certify an inspector has any knowledge about new construction.
- They are restricted from entering active building sites.
- There’s a heavy reliance on boilerplate, inspection software reports that is so voluminous that builders often ignore it.Code Inspections are Different from Home Inspections.
Code Inspections are Different from Home Inspections
- Once a permit is cleared, the enforcement officer does not go back to see if things were changed, modified, removed or replaced later.
- County inspectors have too heavy a workload to spend much time on each house.
- Ensuring You Got What You Paid for Your New Home.
Ensuring You Got What You Paid for Your New Home
- We are an International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (INACHI) Certified Master Inspector (CMI) licensed in DE, MD, & VA.
- Licensed home improvement contractor in MD, & VA.
- We are New Residential Structure (NRS)-certified.
- IAC2 (indoor air quality consultant) certification through the INACHI.
- We teach building trades/carpentry and home inspection courses in local community colleges
- Our “punch list” narrative is tailored to the inspected house.
- Proper lexicon and expertise of our Certified Master Inspector means builders will read our report—often using it to augment their QCP (Quality Control Plan).
At Tokori, Inc., we have a reasonably priced "punch list" inspection that identifies and documents the types of defects described above-bringing you the information you need to hold the builder accountable and to know that your home is properly built. Don’t wait to find the problems long after the warranty is up when you will have to pay!
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