New Home Inspections
New home inspection are necessary to for all home buyers. While buyers new homes are usually under the mistaken impression the governing municipality already performed the necessary new home inspector is seldom what they think. Simple Links home inspection checklist are available sometimes allow new home buyers to find defects they might otherwise miss.
During each eight hour shift a town code inspector may have five hours the road. The other 3 hours is spent the phone setting up schedules reviewing plans dealing with mountains paper work & other administrative tasks.
Here is a question for you:
When municipal inspector are then given a 7 code inspections plus 3 full new home inspections to perform one day how much time does he or she have at each job site to go through his or her new home inspection checklist?
Why don t municipalities perform more thorough inspections new homes?
Well there are many reasons. Budget cuts have cut back the staffing at many municipal building departments. Where there was once a larger staff to inspect there is a smaller staff. Only a small segment time is devoted to new home inspections
Frequently after new home buyers move into the home they discover the reality the vast majority cases municipalities only perform the minimal new home inspections they are required to perform.
10 inspections / 5 hours = 1/2 per inspection. If he or she can hit the hyper space button to move between inspections. New home inspections are more difficult because when town inspectors get there they may not have paved roads & or sidewalks. Subtract out time spent traffic filling out forms jobs waiting for people to answer door bells cleaning off dirty shoes before entering the home discussing problems with those the job & walking to & from the car I think each municipal inspector is lucky they have any time at all left to actually fill out the new home inspection checklist.
In many municipalities inspectors are assigned many more than ten inspections a day. Think your town & how long takes you to get from one place to another. Imagine how long must take the inspectors to plot a route through town to each & every inspection & find ten different homes a day. New home inspections are sometimes streets without signs & or house numbers. Now to toss a few monkey wrenches into the day such as fires & other disasters they are called to provide expertise plus a few crisis such as the mayor calling to find out why so & so failed an inspection & how come so & so passed (yes happens).
While many or most municipal inspectors try their best to inspect new homes & renovated homes to the best their ability factors beyond their control make difficult or impossible to provide the most thorough inspections they would like.
While many home buyers are under the impression the should not worry because the town approved there is seldom the degree inspection provided the buyer thinks. Upon resale New Jersey most municipalities do not check to determine if permits were obtained for all the work performed the home since last changed hands. Some towns will check for open permits but that is about it. If a buyer wants to know if permits & municipal approvals were obtained for all work performed the home is the buyers job to do that research their own.
Buyers are cautioned if work was recently performed a home like new kitchens new bathrooms or renovations they must check to determine if the real estate taxes were updated. A favorite trick is to completely renovate a home & put the market quickly before the real estate tax increase hits the books. New home buyers are then surprised by the new tax bill when they can least afford it.
Home buyers who hire independent home inspectors are much better off because they get the undivided attention a qualified & experienced home inspector for a couple hours.