ComplaintsforErie Inspection Service

• Initial Complaint

  11/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I hired this company to do a home inspection on a house that I was purchasing. They did not do a complete inspection. They claimed they could not get in the crawlspace, and I opened the crawlspace up to look at my dryer vent under there, and I am almost 70 years old and it was pretty easy for me to open it. so I had them come back out to check the crawlspace and I have a sewer line galvanized pipe that is rusty and has holes in it and they will do nothing about it. I am very disappointed in the company and I will never recommend them to anybody because I paid for a service and did not receive it and now I’m stuck with $1000 sewer line that I have to replace. Whereas if they would’ve inspected it, right, I would’ve had it done by the previous owner before I moved in. I could not be here for the inspection because I lived in Florida and was making a move to Ohio. Their excuse was they didn’t want to ruin the dryer vent but they never tried. I decided it was just somebody that didn’t want to do their job.

  

  Business response

  12/11/2023

  Hello,

  
  We are responding to a complaint regarding the home inspection that was conducted for our client ***** *** on October 2nd, 2023. We have spoken to the client about their concern and they were not satisfied with our answer which is why we are now responding to their BBB complaint. We hope that the BBB is able to take an unbiased look at the situation.

  
  Although this scenario is unfortunate and we have sympathy for our client, there is nothing we can do for them. The client is correct that we could not access the crawl space which is a critical area of a home. They are debating the ease of accessibility which we are not going to debate here. We do thousands of home inspections a year and when we run into an issue of accessibility, we recommend that access be made so that we can enter the space prior to closing.

  
  Please keep in mind accessibility can be limited by two primary things:

  1. Unsafe conditions or 

  2. Not wanting to destroy or damage something in the home when accessing an area (this was the case here)

  When this happens, we note in the inspection report that we recommend that access be arranged and that we return back to the property to inspect the area PRIOR to closing on the home (which we do for free, it is not an additional charge for us to return as it is not our client’s fault that we cannot access an area of the home). The client ignored our advice and moved forward with the purchase of the home without having knowledge as to the condition of the crawlspace. The client is now asking us to pay for a repair for the issues found.

  We do not believe this is fair. Although we understand it is an unfortunate situation, we cannot be responsible given the fact that our client did not follow our recommendations.
  

  To be clear, here is a quote from our inspection report: Unable to Inspect: 100% - Access blocked by dryer vent. The crawl space was not inspected. Be advised that because we could not enter the crawlspace, hidden problems may exist that are not documented in this report. It is recommended that after obstructions are removed a full examination of the space be made prior to commitment.

  Lastly, our client states that we didn’t access the crawl because “somebody that didn’t want to do their job.” This logically does not make sense as it is more work for us to return to the property a 2nd time when we cannot access an area of a home on the initial inspection and update the inspection report. This is all done for free mind you. Our inspectors want to access the entire home on the initial inspection. No one on our team wants to return to a property a second time for free. 

  To summarize, this is not the norm for a home inspection, but it does happen from time to time. When it does, our clients contact us to return to the property PRIOR to closing. This happens numerous times throughout the year all without issue. This is not what happened here because our advice was not followed.

• Initial Complaint

  04/05/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Clearly the windows were never opened to be inspected properly... I had to open one and now it won't close properly or lock! I'm afraid to check the rest of Windows, for fear it's the same thing. If I knew ahead of time, I would of asked for money off from the seller to fix those issues. There is absolutely no way he opened that window and was able to close and lock it. Not a happy customer at all and I will never use them again.

  

  Business response

  05/03/2022

  To whom it may concern,

  We received ******** *******'s (our client) complaint on April 2nd, 2022. We returned her call on April 4th (2 days later) and left her a voicemail at 3:47pm EST. We never heard from the client again.
  

  The home inspection the client is referencing was performed in July 2nd, 2021, which was 9 months ago (from date of complaint). Every home inspection we perform specifically looks at windows including their condition and performance. Since windows are a common and critical issue in homes we deliberately inspect them in our process.

  The client in their call to us states that we did not "do our job" and did not inspect the windows. This is untrue and validated by the inspection report which specifically sites two windows that were not operating properly.
  

  We do not believe this is a fair complaint for three reasons:

  1. Passage of time: the complaint came in 9 months after we inspected the home. We cannot possibly predict what will happen to a home. Especially after going through a winter season. Windows can go out of adjustment given the range of temperatures we experience in Ohio. Windows do require maintenance at times and is part of home ownership.

  2. Inspection Report: the client states we did not do our job and did not inspect the windows. We specifically noted 2 windows that did not operate properly

  3. Customer Service: we returned the clients call within a reasonable time (2 business days) and never heard anything again
  

  Please let us know if you need any additional information. Thank you,

  Erie Inspection Service
  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩