Bentley & Associates LLC Home Inspection Services

Riddle me this...we paid for a termite inspection for a home we purchased. We were told there were no visible signs of termite damage. Part of our crawl space was not accessible but not where termite damage was found. Five other contractors who went in our crawl space found the damage no problem. Not sure we understand why Bentley is not taking responsibility for their inspector's gross negligence? Now attorney has been contacted and we are forced to file suit for estimated $20k in damage that Bentley's inspector missed. What ever happened to companies doing the right thing? Unbelievable. Hope no one else has any problems since they give you the run around then tellyou they have filed an insurance claim but refuse to give you a copy of the declination showing claim was filed. Get the certificate for insurance!!

This company missed major construction flaws that should have been caught there are 21 CRACK FLOOR JOISTS and one main beam split this will cost 10's of thousands to fix and they could care less Some of the cracks are 1/2 wide if they did go in the crawlspace they where blind windows broken out the outer thermo panel only the inside one was there Hard wood floor was laid on carpet heating ducts laying loose in crawlspace. drier vent was laying on the dirt floor all moisture was in the crawlspace. Fungus all over the joist at the back of the crawlspace. they did offer our money back LOL. PHOTOS SAY IT ALL

This was terrible. They missed a major structural issue and will not make it right as they initially stated they would. Do NOT use. There is no point. This inspection is worthless.

Bentley and Associates is probably the most unprofessional and uncaring company I have ever personally dealt with. From our inspector Scott and up to the owners Donnie and Susan Bentley, it came across as if we didn't matter as clients at all. We trusted out realtor and Scott to protect us from the seller when buying our first home. During the inspection, my wife and I had to point out problems that Scott was overlooking. Scott missed many major issues from water piping and valves, to holes in a bathtub, and down to unwired outlets and lights. Our most pressing issue was that he reported our main water shut off in the house. When needing to complete repairs after purchase, we turned that knob resulting in water damage to our bonus room as well as flood our garage. The pipe ended in the ceiling and was clearly visible and corroded on top of the insulation. We called Scott immediately to find out why it was missed and he laughed at us for turning the knob and became very disrespectful and rude. He ended up hanging up on us so we decided to call Donnie, the other owner of Bentley and Assoc., to discuss the issue. He only returned our calls after we left multiple messages and our realtor contacted him directly. It came across as if he didn't care how his inspectors treat others and only offered to refund the inspection, not for any of the other problems or damages caused as a result of incomplete inspection. We asked if we could contact him again once we found out the cost of fixing damages and missed items, to which he accepted. Due to the pertinence of the issues and the fact that we couldn't fully use our home without repairs, we had a contractor and electrician come out fix items and give estimates.We called at least twice a week and emailed 5 times over a 2 month period with NO response. We finally contacted the office and were put in touch with Susan, Donnie's wife. The items that we had the contractor and electrician repair before settling with Bentley, per our contract, wouldn't be reimbursed even though they should have been and were liable per our contract. On probably the 4th call we made and someone answered, Susan stated that "you should have done your own inspection of the house before you signed". Being first time buyers, we didn't know someone who is a "trained professional" would miss so many things they are required to inspect by law. Even had we been able to access the house and inspect ourselves, we wouldn't have any validity behind claims unless we paid someone again to come inspect the house and write a report, which is already what we had already paid Scott to do! After going back and forth with Susan for months and getting quotes, she would only agree to reimburse some of the issues and we still ended up paying over 3k in repairs for items that should have been found on inspection. Bentley and Associates made our first home buying experience awful and I hope no one else has to go through what we did with this company. They will blame the buyer of the house for their mistakes and only care about how much money they can get. Next time we will go with another inspector who takes pride in their work and doesn't require a threat of legal help or contacting the state licensing board to resolve such ridiculous issues.

They arrived on time and did a through inspection.

Bentley and A**. did a full house inspection on my home before purchasing. Three weeks after moving in I found that I had a major water leak under my bath tub in the master bedroom. I attempted to do the repair myself for several weeks thinking that it was probably an o-ring which is a minor repair. I finally hired a plumber to come in and do the repair which cost nearly $500 dollars. When I called Bentley and A**. about it they kept trying to say I had waited too late that the time for a refund had expired. Then they tried again to blame me saying that I was there when the home inspection was done as if I walked around and watched. I am not an inspector so if I was here or not is irrelevant since I paid them to do the inspection. They also wanted to say it started leaking after I moved in. The plumber assured me that this tub had been leaking for some time since you could see where the materials had turned black from being wet for some time. They also missed one bedroom that did not have adequate insulation and some heat and air vents not working. They then had the subcontractor call me and he (Steve) was supposedly coming out to inspect it. Steve called and denied ever making a mistake telling me he could walk into a room and tell you if you had a leak. He then was known for being so particular because he never missed anything. He also told me he had tools to find leaks behind walls. Apparently he did't use them since he did't find my leak. He also told me that once they leave the property they didn't give refunds. On there website it offers a 200% guarantee if not satisfied. I was never offered this. I finally got them to agree to a $350 refund AFTER I signed a waiver saying I would not attempt to get anymore money from them. On the website they also offered a free termite inspection which I paid $125 for. This company was referred by a major real estate company that I bought the house thru in Lenoir City, TN. Their negligence ended up costing me several hundred dollars and about 6 trips by repairman coming in and fixing what they missed.

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Scott was very thorough. He looked at the outside and inside (including the attics) of the house. He checked the brick, siding, sidewalks, gutters, toilets, electrical, plumbing, and much more. Within 48 hours, he emailed us a 25 page report which included annotated pictures. As he went along, he explained things to us that he found needed work. I'd highly recommend him and the Bentley company.

They were flexible on scheduling a time that worked for me. The inspector arrived early and was very thorough. He spent at least 3 hours inspecting the first floor and basement/crawlspace area. He did a mold test in the basement where there was evidence of mold and moisture which he sent to a lab. This was an additional 200.00. He explained what he was doing and what he found. The resulting report was just as extensive and detailed as he was with a lot of pictures. I would definitely recommend them.