15/05/2023
How Home Inspection Scams Work-
This scam usually targets buyers, but sellers aren’t exempt. A buyer or seller home inspection scam is a home inspection that is performed poorly, either intentionally or due to negligence, often with unnecessary costs added on. Here are the two most common methods:
Home Inspection Scam Method 1: Intentionally Performing a Bad Inspection
This type of home inspection scam is the most malicious one!
In this case, your real estate agent has very close ties with a home inspector. They recommend them and the inspector intentionally overlooks problems with a house when they are hired. Now, why would they do this?
Because the agent won’t make his commission unless the sale goes through. So they recommend a home inspector that ignores problems in order to make the sale go smoothly. The best-case scenario here is that you sniff out that something is wrong and hire another home inspector (but even that entails paying a new fee).
Home Inspection Scam Method 2: Lack of Training/Intent to Do a Proper Inspection
Some home inspectors may not scam you out of malice, but due to a lack of training or intent to do a proper inspection. However, the end result for a homebuyer is the same, regardless of the motives – you get an unprofessional inspection done that doesn’t uncover the problems of a home.
One of the issues is that South Africa have no formal government-issued licensing for home inspections. Many for-profit and non-profit organizations provide certifications for home inspectors, but there are no unified legal requirements to become one. Further, South Africa do not even require a home inspector to have a license of any kind.
The CPA Act , alongside the Property practitioners act, regulates the ethical standards that need to be followed during a home purchasing transaction, and the only prerequisite is to fill in a simple one page property defects declaration by the seller(usually guided by the estate agent).
In practice, this lack of regulation and training can lead to your home inspector being ill-equipped to do a proper inspection.
A home inspector may only do a visual inspection, without delving deeper to uncover the true problems. In accordance with the norm in South Africa, that is often the only thing required of them.
They may even lack experience with new homes. In-depth inspections are often performed on older homes, so some home inspectors may assume that new homes have no issues. There is no reason to believe this is always the case, so an inspection should still be done.
Further, they may not know the local building codes. Because no legislation stipulates that home inspectors must have current knowledge on building codes, their knowledge may be outdated. So, what can you do to make sure you get a proper home inspection?
Do a due diligence on the inspection company you hire and ask for references!
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