Build a better home inspection system

At Cindy McCammack's home in Addison, the builder mistakenly linked hot water to the toilet. It wasn't caught by the building inspectors.

McCammack said it should have been caught, but, as the development director for the village of Carpentersville, she said she understands how it could have slipped their notice.

Those miscues that aren't caught are the bane of new homeowners. And a recent series by the Daily Herald and ABC 7's I-Team shows that part of the problem may be that inspectors are too busy to catch an error like at McCammack's home or even bigger ones.

The story reported that the number of new-home buyers who filed construction complaints with the state rose 40 percent between 2005 and 2006. Complaints with the Better Business Bureau rose 21 percent in 2007.

An analysis of inspection work logs in Chicago and six suburbs found alarmingly that average workloads for municipal inspectors are as high as one inspection every 34 minutes. Meanwhile, experts recommend no more than one inspection every two hours and, in some cases, no more than two a day.

"If you don't have time to do the job well, that is when things go undetected," said John Ball, a former president of a group of building inspectors and a former owner of a Naperville-based building inspection company. Commenting on what was reported in the story, he said: "They don't have the time necessary to inspect to a level that someone purchasing a home would expect."

A standard should be set that all municipalities must adhere to.

Municipal inspectors, however, say they aren't going to check on the house's overall quality -- they check compliance with building codes.

"What we do is a cursory inspection," Carpentersville's McCammack said. "We do not check everything. That is not our job. We don't warrant the work. We are going to look for the big stuff."

To feel comfortable that when they move in, surprises aren't in store, homebuyers need to take heed and look into hiring their own inspectors. At the very least, they should research the builder and general contractors working on the homes.

We also like the idea from the International Code Council that booming towns be eligible for federal funds to help pay for additional inspectors.

"People take it for granted that when they walk into the room and flip the light switch, that they don't get electrocuted or the ceiling doesn't fall in," said Steve Daggers, spokesman for the council. "Through the inspection process, inspectors make sure those buildings are built safe and sound."

That's the least you can expect when you make what is arguably the biggest purchase in your lifetime.