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RE: Selling Your House - Who is Responsible for Termite Inspection ?
Good to know. I've heard of cases where the seller did it, and others where the buyer did it, but it makes sense that if they buyer is doing it that the sale would be contingent on the house passing. Then they can back out if things are not in shape. They may not even have to pay for the inspection if the damage is bad. No need for a certification if the damage is clear.
I would add to that the buyer should make it contingent regardless of who pays for it because no matter what - you still want to have that option back out - and to be honest - this is already covered under the "Contingent on Inspection" clause and any inspection that reveals something that the buyer doesnt like is cause for them to cancel the contracts as long as they are within their inspection period and haven't removed the contingencies - so as long as you have included that clause ( which in california is the default ) then you still have enough flexibility to protect your interests.
That would be terrible to put an offer on a house, and then find out there's a ton of work that needs to be done. I had a friend who bought a house and the inspection company didn't check something, but signed off on it. There were issues later and somehow the inspection company left them out to dry. It was very unfortunate for them. You have to be careful, but even then sometimes it doesn't work out the way you want.
This is a concern that may people have - unfortunately , when dealing with multifamily situations , you don't get to inspect the property till you have an accepted offer which make it all the more important to include the " contingent on an inspection" clause so that you have the chance to look everything over carefully.
That's a shame what happened to your friend. I also found out the hard way that sometimes you need to followup and verify things yourself - I once found out that the most of the piers in the entire foundation was either destroyed by pest/mold , was leaning off to one side , or entirely missing in some cases - this is after we had already added a new roof and an AC system including ducting - we had to jack up the house and replace them all one by one - it added a few thousand to the job and was very stressful for everyone -we fired the original contractor as a result of that and many other issues which I will elaborate on later.
If you don't get to inspect the property until you have an accepted offer, then it would be paramount that you have contingency clauses. You wouldn't just go dropping offers on any property because the inspection costs would add up, but then you're at least serious about the property, but you have an out if it's not a good one.
Yeah, they got burned good. I feel bad for them. I think they were able to get things fixed, but they had to eat the cost.
You found that most of the piers in the foundation were missing?! That's insane! Seems like something that should have been caught in the inspection. That sounds like quite the story. Hopefully you were able to make your money up later.