George M Forney Home Inspections

Mr. Forney arrived a little late to the appointment on a day when we both had to take off work for a few hours to be home for the inspection which irritated us a little bit. As mentioned before, he was suggested by our realtor and in the need to meet deadlines we just went with him. He seemed nice enough and we both tagged along as he went through the house. He pointed out absurd things and spoke to my wife like she was a moron about certain things...like as a woman she had no common sense. We were not impressed or pleased with that. He kept telling us that he was in the construction business for all these years and knew about all the major systems. He pointed out some electrical issues in the breaker box and other safety concerns...none of which made it into his report on the house. Other than saying the hot water heater was old and that the one shower had a small leak he claimed the plumbing in the house was in great shape. Except we bought the house and it has been a disaster from day one. The pipes are not angled so that water drains towards the drain, a toilet backflushes into a bathtub drain so the tub is CONSTANTLY clogged, there is a MAJOR mold problem in the basement...and none of these things were found by him. Neither of the toilets were secured to the floor at all and the holes in the floor under the toilet were miscut and so large that the floors had to be replaced to bolt the toilets down. We've had 2 different plumbing companies at the house to do some major repair work and both of them ask if we had the house inspected at all because the plumbing in the house was a DIY nightmare that a former homeowner really messed up...and that any good home inspector should have seen all the red flags right away. On top of the plumbing issues there have been pretty significant electrical issues. The house we bought is a lemon...just someone else's garbage...and we are stuck trying to turn it into a home. On top of the 100 problems he missed it took him just shy of forever to even get the poorly put together report to us. Should we ever buy another house you can be certain Mr. Forney will not be stepping foot on the property.

Mr. Forney arrived at the house on time and provided me with the contract, which is in my name, with my e-mail address and details (this matters as he sent all of the reports in my husband's name even though this house purchase is in my name alone). I wrote him the check for his fees which he wanted up front. He then started the inspection. He did allow me to tag along and he pointed out many areas of concern such as notGFCI outlets in the kitchen and bathrooms to name just one. He took a few photos along the way and told us that everything would be in his report. That was on a Tuesday. The clock was ticking as to the inspection period of our contract...By Friday I still had not received the report and the clock was nearly at the end. I e-mailed Mr. Forney and he e-mailed me the report later that evening. After a quick review of the report I found several obvious errors, such as his stating in the report that the GFCI's in the bathrooms and kitchen were in working order. (Remember, there were none, he had pointed that out to me.) I e-mailed him, reminding him of the clock that was ticking and asked that he make that and other corrections to the home inspection report. I finally received the corrected report late on Sunday evening. I sat down with my realtor (who recommended him) on Monday to review the report page by page. I was appalled to see his reference in the report to the circuit breaker box in the basement in good working order. This house is a mobile home with NO basement. The breaker box is in a bedroom. There were several other important omissions and errors in this draft of his report, meaning that it had to be sent back to him once again for further corrections. The final report did not arrive until late on Wednesday evening, a week and a day after the inspection and just 24 hours before my time for inspections was over. This meant the need to go to the sellers and ask for extensions so that further reports could be completed. As for the pest report, that was a part of my contract with Mr. Forney but to be performed by another person, that didn't arrive until late Wednesday either. Mr. Forney's report had exactly two photos in it, and only one of those was of a problem area. About a half of each page of the report is filled with a disclaimer explaining the limits of his inspection. The lack of attention to detail and the fact that I felt as if he had sent someone else's report with my husband's name typed at the top was, to me, unprofessional on his part. The details that he had wrong were important details and unexcusable in my opinion. Now, several weeks later, my husband and I are realizing that he didn't even check the plumbing in the bathrooms and kitchen to see if they were leaking. The number of items that we are certain he didn't check are making us think that perhaps we need to pay another professional to actually do a complete home inspection before this purchase moves forward. Had Mr. Forney had a checklist and/or written anything down, maybe he and his report would have been more orgainzed and factually correct.