Around The Town Inspections

It started great. Dave provides a comprehensive report with photos of the inspection. He stressed this point over and over. Unfortunately, a great report is only as great as the data it contains. The realtor gave Dave the keys to come to the house when the owner was not home. (the home was vacant and up for sale). Dave detailed the weather and the lighting of when he arrived. I know his times were a bit off, because he told me he didnt start till about 9am, but his reports had timestamps of earlier than 9am. This had me a little worried at first. I showed up around noon and Dave walked me through everything he thought he found. A few days later, my father-in-law (parttime DIY handyman) came into town and did his own inspection. One of the main things seen was that the wiring from the hot water heater was not fixed into a junction box. The wire was not even covered completely as the code states it should be. I sent this information to Dave, and fortunately he did have a photo of the water heater (to show how new it was) and you could easily see the loose electical wire coming from the wall. He apologized and added it to the report. While in the house with my father-in-law, we came in, closed the front door and looked back at the door. In between the top of the door and the frame of the house, light was coming in. The sun wasnt even shining, its just daylight you can see - there is an obvious gap between the door and the frame. I mentioned this to Dave, and he said it was slightly raining and it was possible that the bad lighting prevented him from seeing this - even though it is VERY easy to tell there is a 1/4" to a 1/2" gap between the door and the frame. I got out my level and determined just the door was crooked, not the frame. I informed Dave of this, and he said since he didnt have a picture he couldnt add it to the report, but he would "reimburse me the cost of weather stripping" when I "fixed it". I went on to explain to him that the door already has weather stripping and that the door or the frame is crooked and he missed this. Dave completely ignored this email and I never heard from Dave again. I thought this to be VERY unprofessional. He should have come out, used a level himself, and should have added this to the inspection report. Because it was not in the inspection report, I had no leverage or proof of this defect when negotiating the price of the house, and could not include it in the repair list. The door should have been the first thing checked - front doors replacements are very expensive and anyone can tell, anytime of the day, that there is daylight coming through the gap in the door. Big miss here.