Your Canadian Home Inspector: A Necessary Part of Home Buying

One of the necessary parts of buying a home is finding a qualified home inspector to make sure that there are no major faults with the home. A home inspector examines the major components of your potential home and provides you with a report stating what condition they appear to be in. A home inspection by a qualified individual will enable you to make a good decision about buying, what offer you will submit and what conditions you will stipulate. 

A home inspection includes an examination of the electrical, plumbing, heating, roofing, foundation, interior and exterior of a home. The inspector is non-invasive i.e. they do not damage the home, nor do they remove integral components of said home in the course of their inspection. This may mean that the inspector has no way of knowing if there is a budding invasion of termites, mold or carpenter ants inside the walls unless evidence shows outside them. Often, separate inspections for roof integrity and pests are recommended and even required by some jurisdictions.

Many home purchase contracts stipulate that a home inspection be completed and problems addressed to the satisfaction of the buyer before the home purchase contract is considered valid. The home inspection ensures that, short of tearing the home apart, the most in-depth evaluation of the home's condition is made. Buyers can then use this information to determine whether the home's condition justifies the price they are considering paying or whether they are going to change their offer or add conditions to the purchase.

The importance of the qualifications of home inspections is reflected in the recent legislation in British Columbia that requires that home inspectors meet the qualification of the province's branch of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors, the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of British Columbia, or the National Certification Program for Home & Property Inspectors. More provinces are likely to enact legislation like this in the near future, making it harder for unqualified individuals to conduct valid home inspections. It is imperative for the home buyer to ensure that their home inspector is a qualified professional.

While a home inspection isn't going to guarantee that nothing goes wrong with your home, it will catch a lot of problems before they become your problems. A good home inspector will cost several hundred dollars, but when compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars your home is likely to cost you, it is more than worth it!