Buyers lament having no home inspection
Q. When we bought our home, we were on a tight budget, so we did not hire a home inspector. After moving in, we began having electrical problems, so we hired an electrician to see what was wrong. He said half the house is wired to one circuit, and it's going to cost a lot to redo the wiring. Are the sellers and the agents liable for this, or are we out of luck for not having hired an inspector?
A. Sellers and Realtors are required to disclose known defects: problems of which they are aware. However, sellers are often unaware of faulty wiring, unless there are apparent functional problems, such as flickering lights, breakers that often trip or fuses that often need replacement. Agents are even less likely to know about such defects, unless informed by the sellers.
It may or may not be possible to learn whether the sellers were aware of this problem. Sometimes a neighbor can tell you about problems the sellers were having. If half the house is wired to a single circuit, the sellers may have had frequent issues with tripped breakers or blown fuses. If so, a neighbor might know about this.
Buying a home without having it professionally inspected is a big mistake, as you are now discovering, and it is surprising people choose to invest so much money without spending a few hundred dollars to protect that investment. Competent Realtors encourage their clients to hire home inspectors. If your agent did not do this, that was a professional breach.
Aside from the question of liability for electrical repairs, you need to learn what other defects are not yet disclosed. Try to find the most thorough and experienced home inspector in your area. A competent inspector will reveal many more conditions you should know about, possibly even ones that involve health and safety issues, and possibly some of which the sellers definitely should have been aware.
Q. We hired a home inspector prior to buying our new home. Now that we've moved in, we find no exhaust hood above the kitchen range. The inspector tells us that no hood is required, but everyone knows range hoods are standard equipment in all kitchens. We think the inspector failed to disclose this defect and is now trying to make excuses. What is your opinion?
A. Range hoods have been standard equipment in homes for so many years that they are commonly presumed to be required by the building code. Surprisingly, no such mandate exists for stoves in a residence. There are obvious advantages to having a range hood in a dwelling, and your disappointment at not having one is understandable.
The Uniform Mechanical Code contains all of the basic requirements for ventilation at cooking fixtures. The only pertinent regulations for exhaust hoods at ranges involve commercial stoves, such as those in restaurants. The code may eventually be upgraded to include hoods in residential kitchens, but thus far, no such requirement has been enacted.
Experienced home inspectors typically point out the lack of a range hood simply to inform clients of an unusual and undesirable condition, but inspectors are under no obligation to provide this disclosure.
• 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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