AB Intro-Spect Residential Home Inspections

On August 3, 2012, Grover Brown (dba AB Intro-Spect) did a whole-house inspection of my current residence, the home my husband and I purchased in August of 2012. He assured me that he does a very detailed inspection and spends more time on the inspection than the average inspector. This home has a crawlspace. In his inspection report, he made no mention of an existing problem or what could be problematic about a crawlspace. I let him know we had never owned a home with a crawlspace and was wondering what issues it could have. I also mentioned the smell that was present in the basement. The previous owners had a large piece of carpeting on the floor, and my assumption was that the carpet had become musty over the years. He stated the previous owners had items stored in the crawlspace and he did not see any issues with it. Based on his inspection report, my husband and I moved forward with purchasing the home. We closed on the purchase of the home in late August, and moved in on September 18, allowing the previous owners to stay there until they could move to the new home they were having built. Shortly after we moved to the home, I started having severe asthma attacks. I spent hours trying to determine why, since I had not had any asthma attacks while in the home prior to moving there. Unbeknownst to me at the time, there was a serious mold problem in the basement, stemming from the crawlspace area. Mr. Brown, at my request, collected samples for a mold test on September 20, 2012. The report was completed on September 28, 2012 and it reflected a very high level of Aspergillus/Penicillium mold in the basement. I am very allergic to that type of mold, and it is an asthma trigger for me. I hired a company to remediate the mold since it was a very extensive problem. The owner of the mold remediation company stated that once the previous owners moved their belongings from the crawlspace, they disturbed the mold and caused it to be dispersed in the air. He also stated the vapor barrier in the crawl space had been installed improperly and that allowed moisture to collect in the crawlspace, promoting mold growth. He also noted the iron I-beam in the crawlspace was very rusted, an obvious sign of the excessive moisture in the area. Several other contractors / another inspector concurred. Mr. Brown should have questioned the smell in the basement, a sign of mold being present, and he should have noticed the rusty I-beam and that the vapor barrier had not been installed properly. I had the mold remediated and also insured the insulation that was affixed to the basement walls was removed since there was a possibility mold could grow on the paper backing of the insulation. It was very costly to have everything taken care of(over $12,000), but I had no other option because of my mold allergy. I am happy to report the mold level was reduced drastically and is now at a very safe level. (Since all homes have mold, it is impossible to rid homes of mold 100%.) On December 1, my husband and I spoke with Mr. Brown in person about the mold situation. I expressed to him my concerns about him missing the mold issue, in light of the fact that there were several signs pointing to it. I then asked him to file a claim with his insurance company to see if they would approve the claim and reimburse me for part of the expense. He agreed to do this and was to follow up with me by the following Saturday. Unfortunately, he did not follow up with me. I sent him an e-mail message on February 8 and asked him to reply by February 12, asking him if he had any news about whether or not his insurance company would accept the claim. I did not hear from him until February 18. At that time he stated he had been very busy and would try to get back to me sometime later that week. Never heard from him. As of April 2, 2013, he has not replied to me as he had promised he would. I trusted Mr. Brown, a person who stated he is a man of God and a man of integrity. What bothers me almost as much as losing the money is that he did not have the decency to follow up with me as he stated he would. We also hired him to take care of a few repairs/maintenance items, some of which he noted in his inspection report, and some of which we noticed after we moved into the home. After doing some investigative work, I discovered he was not supposed to offer to make any repairs to items listed in his inspection report. Makes sense. Seems that he violated a NACHI rule by doing the repairs (if I understood their website information correctly). He also offered to take care of the mold problem. Needless to say I was incensed by that since I felt he should have detected the mold problem during the inspection; or at the very least, he should have suggested we have a mold inspection done, considering there were several signs an inspector should have noticed that pointed to there being a mold issue. I am extremely disappointed and saddened because I had to use money from my retirement fund to pay for the mold remediation. The contract I signed was signed electronically, and I did not have a copy of it, and he did not put a copy of it in the inspection report. A few weeks ago I was able to find an old e-mail message Mr. Brown had sent to me that included a link to the contract. I was able to access the contract via that message. After reading it, I noticed that the company who wrote the contract for their inspector members made sure it would be virtually impossible to bring legal action against them. I wanted to give Grover Brown a chance to have a discussion with me prior to submitting this review, but it seems that discussion is not going to take place. I wanted to make sure others who might be considering hiring him as an inspector are aware of my experience with him. The grade I gave him for responsiveness pertains to his lack of follow up after the inspection was done and the mold was discovered. Punctuality refers to his arrival to do the inspection report.

Mr. Brown took his time, spending four or five hours inspecting the house. He was very thorough. His report was equally thorough, citing not only the elements in the house that needed repairs but also the status of each element, giving me a two or three year plan for scheduling home maintenance. Additionally, he provided estimates of repairs. Not binding estimates, of course, but general estimates that I can use when I search for a service provider to gauge the validity of the estimate received.