Paid $500 for a home inspection that missed a major leak

Bought my first house three months ago in Portland and thought I did everything right with the inspection. The guy spent maybe 2 hours there, pointed out some minor stuff, gave me the green light. Fast forward to last week and I find water staining in the basement ceiling that turned into a full pipe leak behind the drywall. Now I'm looking at $3,000 in repair work. Has anyone else had an inspection that totally dropped the ball on something big?

2 comments

2 Comments

fisher.diana1mo ago

That's brutal, I'm really sorry you're dealing with this. Three grand is a lot of money to drop on top of a new house. I've had friends in Seattle with similar stories where inspectors just walk through and miss obvious problems. You'd think for $500 they would actually look behind things and not just at surface level. Hopefully you can get something out of the inspector's insurance or at least leave a bad review to warn others. Hang in there, this stuff always seems to happen right after you close.

susan_wells1mo ago

Actually, I kind of disagree on this one. Inspectors can't really tear into walls or move all the furniture without written permission from the seller, and most people don't want their new house damaged before they even move in. The real problem is that new homeowners expect a crystal ball instead of a visual check, you know? Three grand stings for sure but sometimes stuff just hides behind drywall or under fresh paint and nobody catches it.