Home Inspections of SC, LLC

My home inspection was done the afternoon Immediately following the really big storm in Lexington in June 2019. Immediately after we moved in, we heard loud sounds intermittently coming from under the house at the area of our load bearing wall mostly in the area of the dining room which is in the center of the house. I noticed while vacuuming there was a slope in the floor in that same area. Also, in the very early fall, I noticed a small crack In the floor next to the refrigerator getting a little larger. I had asked a realtor friend of mine about it and we thought perhaps the small crack was from maybe the floors expanding and contracting but couldn’t explain away the bump that was in the floor. I thought maybe it was a water problem from the refrigerator making the floor perhaps buckle. She suggested we call the inspector. After trying to get our schedules to match so he could come out and look, the day he came, he looked under the house and after expressing my concerns that it may be the foundation, he assured me that he had gone under and checked measurements and joists and there was no problem with the foundation. He could not come in and look that day because I had to work late and was not there. He told me he would call me on a Saturday when he was in the neighborhood next time and take a look. I never heard from him. When I next saw a hairline crack running from the corner of my closet door on the inside and out, I became very concerned and decided to call a reputable foundation company. The representative immediately told me he thought he knew what the problem was but needed to go under the house and measure. He took measurements under the house and then came and took another one from the low bearing wall inside the house to the exterior and informed me the load bearing wall is 12 inches to the left of the supporting beam. I was shocked. So, I asked him if he said 12 inches or 2 inches. He said 12 inches. It took two measurements to determine the loadbearing wall was 12 inches off of the beam. Where he took those measurements has no obstructions; it is a wide open space. He asked me if I had an inspection when I purchased the house and I said yes. He proceeded to say the inspector should have caught the very large problem. I had a second inspection done from a another reputable company and the findings were the same. The comment of the inspector should’ve known was also made. He said a slope in the floor doesn’t happen overnight and if your load bearing wall was 12 inches off of the supporting beam, the slope was probably there for a very long time before I purchased the house. I sent my findings to the inspector to ask for his help in remedying this problem and he responded with a very curt message and basically it said he was only responsible for what is visible and felt it was the previous home owner’s failure to disclose the problem and I should question foundation companies and the builder as to whether the previous owners had contacted them. I saw this is as passing the blame. I decided it would be wise for me to get yet another reputable foundation company to take a look since he wasn’t satisfied with the two reports I had already. The third company came out this week and told me the same thing the first two companies have said and that the inspector should have detected the problem. He even has a picture of the wires going from under the house up towards the loadbearing wall and it clearly shows how far away it is from the supporting beam. I emailed the inspector again on 5/19 or 20/2020 with this third report showing him it said the same thing. His response was again very rude and again passed the blame. He again made the statement he was only responsible for what is visible. He was also rude to my realtors when they questioned him and asked him to do the right thing. He was unwilling to help at all. His website states he has a lot of experience and is very thorough and even has construction experience and training(which makes him more qualified). It states he has integrity and he is honest and with his inspection one can make a sound decision and be at peace with their home buying experience. As a single homeowner, there is no peace in finding out your house is unstable and it is going to cost you $15-$17,000 to have it repaired. I feel the term integrity is not one that should be used in this case. I paid for his “thorough” inspection and trusted I would receive just that. I would not want anyone to have to go through the stress and disappointment I have gone through in the past 10 months due to a poor inspection and what I feel is lack of integrity and failure to take responsibility for one’s mistakes and make things right. So, this is why I felt it was right to make sure future home buyers would be informed before they hired this inspector and hopefully they can avoid having to go through the same thing.