Buyer questions accuracy of home inspection
Q. My home is now in escrow, and I'm having trouble with the home inspector's evaluation of the air conditioner. The A/C has always worked well, but the inspector says it needs repair by a contractor. When I asked him why, he said the refrigerant pipe did not become cold immediately after the system was turned on. This kind of test doesn't make sense to me. The pipe may not become cold, but the air circulation definitely gets cold and has always made my home comfortable in the summertime. Now the buyer wants me to hire a contractor to repair a system that works just fine as it is. Does this make sense to you?
A. The method you describe for testing an air conditioner is not an accepted technique for home inspectors or for HVAC contractors and indicates an ill-informed understanding of A/C systems. The refrigerant pipe in an cooling system needs about five minutes or more to become cold, even when the system is in optimum condition.
Regardless of how long the system has been running, checking the temperature of the refrigerant tube is not a reliable test because it does not ensure that the cold air output is adequate at the registers.
The standard method for evaluating a system's effectiveness is to measure the temperature differential between the intake air and the conditioned air after approximately five to ten minutes of continuous running time. A differential of 15 to 20 degrees is to be expected when the system is in good operational condition. To expect the system to produce cold air or a cold refrigerant pipe immediately is simply not practical. In most cases, a functional system would fail this kind of makeshift inspection.
If the buyer insists on having a contractor's evaluation, perhaps the service billing should be based upon the contractor's findings. If the air conditioner needs repair, the cost should be yours; if the system is found to be fully operative, perhaps the buyer should incur the contractor's cost. That would be something to negotiate before making the service call.
Q. When we purchased our home, we were told it was 25 years old, and the seller confirmed this by showing us the manufacture date in the toilet tank. Recently, while repairing a leak in the other toilet, we found a manufacture date of 1972. Now we're wondering if the house is older than disclosed. How can we verify the age of our home?
A. Manufacture dates in toilet tanks used to be a reliable way of dating a home. That was before toilet replacement became commonplace to reduce water usage. In many communities, it has become a legal requirement to replace old toilets when homes are sold. Therefore, fewer and fewer homes still have the toilets that were installed when the houses were built.
A more reliable way to determine the age of a home is to check with the local building department for the permit history of the property. If for any reason they cannot provide that information, consult the local tax assessor's office. Their records may show the year when the lot was reassessed as improved property.
• To write to Barry Stone, visit him on the web at www.housedetective.com, or write AMG, 1776 Jami Lee Court, Suite 218, San Luis Obispo, CA 94301.
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