Home Inspections

 

Home Inspection

When buying a home, townhouse, loft, condo or commercial building, it is good to do a home inspection by a registered home inspector, so you can satisfy yourself of the condition of the house. 

A home inspection report will include information about the following components:

• the structure and foundation, where visible
• roof
• plumbing
• heating, ventilation and cooling systems (HVAC)
• hot water tank, boilers or other water heater systems
• electrical
• moisture (a good inspector will have a moisture reader available)
• windows
• materials used - flooring, piping etc
• if it's a house, the grading around the perimeter of the house 
• other items pertaining to the Ontario Building Code and Fire Code such as hand rails, fire and carbon monoxide detectors etc. 

Sometimes in a busy market where most properties sell in bidding wars, you would be wise to do a home inspection before the offer date, and consider whether or not you will have a Condition for a home inspection in your offer. 

If you choose to add a Condition for a home inspection, it would look similar to this:

THIS OFFER IS CONDITIONAL upon the inspection of the subject property by a registered home inspector at the Buyer’s own expense, and the obtaining of a report satisfactory to the Buyer in the Buyer’s sole and absolute discretion. Unless the Buyer gives notice in writing delivered to the Seller personally or in accordance with any other provisions for the delivery of notice in this Agreement of Purchase and Sale or any Schedule thereto not later than 6:00 p.m. on the 5th business day following acceptance of this agreement (excluding Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays) that this condition is fulfilled, this Offer shall be null and void and the deposit shall be returned to the Buyer in full without deduction. The Seller agrees to co-operate in providing access to the property for the purpose of this inspection. This condition is included for the benefit of the Buyer and may be waived at the Buyer’s sole option by notice in writing to the Seller as aforesaid within the time period stated herein. The Seller acknowledges that the Buyer, his agent and/or the inspector may take photos and/or video during the inspection for the purpose of fixture and chattel identification and reporting purposes. 

Make sure that if you're planning on doing a home inspection before an offer date, that your buyer Agent speaks to the listing Agent to book enough time for the home inspection which could take several hours. 

The inspection reports typically take a day or two as well, so don't leave it to the last minute to do one.