My opinion is I like to forward these jobs to my competitors. I very rarely do a residence evaluation. A client would have to catch me in a good mood with a sob story, like a single mom who doesn’t know where else to turn, in order for me to do one now. That happened a little over a year ago and she was the buyer. That was the first house evaluation I had done in several years.
My experience is homeowners, banks and realtors want a quick letter from me stating it is okay, maybe pay me $200, and then leave me with all the liability. The new owner of the house moves in, sees problems and expects me to fix it all because I wrote a report for someone at some time. There’s not enough money in it for the risk of exposure. Most house structural problems are geotechnical related anyway so I really don’t want to handle them. Again, I gladly send all this work to my competitors.
Rich
From: Christopher Banbury [mailto:cbanbury@arkengineering.net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 9:39 AM
To: seaint@seaint.org
Subject: condition assessment
I’ve been asked to do a condition assessment on a residence that is being sold by a bank due to a foreclosure. The house is in my neighborhood and I seem to remember that it may have had an issue with a sinkhole.
The bank is selling the house as-is and hasn’t provided any reports or studies. To what lengths should I go to discover the history of the structure? If the sinkhole damage was repaired by following an engineered study does the seller have any obligation to disclose its history?
I can base a preliminary condition assessment only on what is generally evident and exclude a consideration of sink-hole related activity but I’d like a few opinions.
Thanks in advance.
Christopher Banbury, PE
President
Ark Engineering, Inc.
PO Box 10129, Brooksville, FL 34603
22 North Broad ST, Brooksville, FL 34601
Phone: (352) 754-2424
Fax: (352) 754-2412
