Home Warranty Inspection form

[John H. Veivia]

I just got a job for a warranty inspection on a one year old home about to go out of the builders one year warranty. Anyone have knowledge of a pre existing form for such an inspection. I use Report Host and love it but it's really set up for a buyers or sellers inspection. Never had a warranty inspection before so I was just wondering if anyone knew of a downlaodable form for this type of inspection.

[prichardson]

I do a standard Inspection but I add cosmetic issues. These should be part of the builders warranty. Ask if the homeowner was given a Home Owners Manual at contract signing. This will let you know what the builder warrants and what he doesn't.
I would still note items whether the builder warrants the item or not

[Joseph Burkeson, CMI]

Like New Construction inspections I view Home Warranty Inspections as a code inspection... Was the home built to the spec?

[kpierce]

Originally Posted by prichardson

I do a standard Inspection but I add cosmetic issues. These should be part of the builders warranty.

I've never heard of or seen a builder warranty that covers cosmetic items. I'd be very interested to see one if you have an example.

To the OP, I'd try to get a copy of the builder's warranty. The warranty document combined with the a good, solid meeting with the homeowner about their expectations about the inspection should suffice. If the homeowner is simply looking for a list to submit to his/her builder, then the warranty document will be immensely helpful in determining what to put in the inspection report.

Of course, that's all irrelevant if you abide by a SOP, state mandated or otherwise. In that case, well, you should know the answer.

In my opinion, what you'd want to avoid is writing up all kinds of sh*t, cosmetic or not, and telling them the builder "should" cover it. Generally, the builder and homeowner have a specific, signed around warranty document that goes into explicit detail about what is and isn't covered. You'd be surprised how many items that you would naturally write up in an inspection report aren't covered in these warranty documents.

That being said, the safest route is probably just to perform a standard home inspection like any other.

[prichardson]

Nobody will have a written warranty for cosmetic issues, but just about every builder in this area will cover most cosmetic issues within reason. They will already have a drywall guy and painter coming in to repair nail pops. My drywall guy would make any repairs under 1 sq ft one time during the one year warranty for free, and my painter would paint all patches in the house one time in the first year. Most all of the subs I used would make minor or cosmetic repairs for free one time during the year warranty. It was all about customer satisfaction and word of mouth referral.

[kpierce]

Originally Posted by prichardson

Nobody will have a written warranty for cosmetic issues, but just about every builder in this area will cover most cosmetic issues within reason. They will already have a drywall guy and painter coming in to repair nail pops. My drywall guy would make any repairs under 1 sq ft one time during the one year warranty for free, and my painter would paint all patches in the house one time in the first year. Most all of the subs I used would make minor or cosmetic repairs for free one time during the year warranty. It was all about customer satisfaction and word of mouth referral.

Interesting. Drywall cracks and nail pops are a pretty standard one-time repair around here as well but that's about where the cosmetic repairs start and end. However, I agree that it's a good idea for customer satisfaction purposes. Some builders around here could probably gain some more referrals by being more flexible with warranty.