Baker Street Home Inspections

You have a 15 minute window with your partner during an open house viewing. What are you looking at? Are you considering the things you want to change? Paint, ...flooring, appliances? In the big picture, those are all small ticket items. How about the roof, or if there are significant cracks in the foundation, or problems in the crawlspace. Did you check the crawlspace? How old is the furnace and hot water tanks? After that 15 minute viewing you are expected to make an offer - or not. If you do make an offer, how confident are you that there’s no problems in the house? After all, you had 15 minutes to look at it. Making a confident purchase means you’ve also had an accredited home inspector from HIABC inspect literally hundreds of components and is reporting back to you. They are on YOUR side.

In most BC homes built prior to 1990, the presence of some building materials with asbestos is almost always present. It was commonly used in office buildings, ...public buildings and schools. It insulated hot water heating systems and was put into walls and ceilings as insulation against fire and sound. It has also been found in many products around the house: clapboard; shingles and felt for roofing; exterior siding; pipe covering; compounds and cement; textured and latex paints; acoustical ceiling tiles and plaster; vinyl floor tiles; and appliance wiring to name a few. Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (CMHC) cautions: To avoid health risks through prolonged exposure to asbestos fibres, proper precautions must be taken when repairs or renovations disturb asbestos-containing materials, such as: disturbing loose-fill vermiculite insulation which may contain asbestos; removing deteriorating roofing shingles and siding containing asbestos; ripping away old asbestos insulation from around a hot water tank; sanding or scraping vinyl asbestos floor tiles; breaking apart acoustical ceiling tiles containing asbestos; sanding or scraping older water-based asbestos coatings such as roofing compounds, spackling, sealants, paint, putty, caulking or drywall. Safe practices for handling asbestos can be found at www.worksafebc.com. Health Canada updated their information on asbestos in June 2015: http:// healthycanadians.gc.ca//contamina/asbestos-amiante-eng.php

Providing and requiring members attend quality educational and training opportunities Creating and using best home inspection practices Adhering to a C...ode of Ethics eliminating conflicts of Interest Maintaining a professional arms length between the home inspection and real estate industries to ensure consumer confidence Working with the BC Government to raise the level of excellence for home inspections in BC Holding our member inspectors to our higher standards and business practices Providing a 1-800 number for consumers to call with questions about the Industry, our Association, or our Members Providing a fully staffed office to offer full time support and assistance to our members and the public See more

Reading the Strata Minutes alone isn’t good enough. Buying a Condo or townhouse? You’re probably going to be dealing with a Strata Corporation. Stratas are orga...nizations (usually made up of residents who live in the complex) set up to govern a multi-family residential complex, such as a condo, residential community, tower or a group of townhouses. It is the law in BC for the seller to provide two years‘ worth of strata minutes to persons considering purchasing and have made an accepted offer. You should definitely read the minutes, look out for Special General Meetings, and depreciation reports (if there are any) In the depreciation reports, find out if there are any engineering reports, or upcoming costs and levies that may impact your monthly payments. Look as well at how the strata made their decision. Did they always choose the least expensive option for repair? But that’s just the beginning. Make notes of what you’ve read and bring them with you to the inspection. Armed with what you’ve discovered, a home inspection will (and should) shed light on some of the issues that have come up and in some cases, find others that haven’t been disclosed in the strata report. When looking for your home inspector, ask first, do you belong to HIABC?

It’s important to know when you are in the process of purchasing a home, getting a home inspection is vital. However, what inspector you choose can make a big d...ifference. Inspectors in British Columbia have several options. All inspectors in BC must be licensed through Consumer Protection BC. You can check the status of a licence online. It is not mandatory to belong to any home inspection association however. Why is this important? There is no incentive to adhere to a Code of Ethics. A home inspector may use marketing techniques - such as providing realtor incentives; business to business relationships that can be questionable; or meet just the baseline qualifications for a business practice; may not keep the educational aspects of their business up to date; and consider business first - not client first attitudes. Although the provincial organization provides some measure of consumer confidence, an accredited inspector through Home Inspectors Association of BC (HIABC) offers you much more. Providing and requiring members attend quality educational and training opportunities Creating and using best home inspection practices Adhering to a Code of Ethics eliminating conflicts of Interest Maintaining a professional arms length between the home inspection and real estate industries to ensure consumer confidence Working with the BC Government to raise the level of excellence for home inspections in BC Holding our member inspectors to our higher standards and business practices Providing a 1-800 number for consumers to call with questions about the Industry, our Association, or our Members Providing a fully staffed office to offer full time support and assistance to our members and the public