Had an inspection. Won’t mention names or localities, as it is still pending.
Realtor, who I knew, referred me for inspection. Relo for a client not present.
Inspection went well and the Realtor and I talked.
Seems that she was the listing agent on another house a few blocks away. High priced houses in an affluant area.
Seems the client, on the house that the listing agent was my friend, “hired” a local code inspector (from a different village. Illinois is a home rule state, where every town and village with 10,000 or more population can set their own local AHJ codes). The Realtor friend asked about licensing for HIs.
Here is the state law, with regards to licensing:
To summerize, when doing a home inspection (condo or multiple of 4 units or less) during a real estate transation (under a pending contract) for a fee and inspecting 2 or more systems, the inspector MUST ne state licensed.
In other words, Architects and SEs and PEs and code inspectors cannot to home inspections, for fee, unless they are licensed.
The listing agrent checked the state site and found that the code inspector was not state licensed and took a fee for the inspection.
He missed a lot of stuff, and called out a lot of stuff that was not wrong. He also quoted “code” (i.e., the local code for his village, not applicable for the villiage that the house was in).
The Realtor called me in and I found that the big three things he was calling out were not a problem (water intrusion into a finished wall in a basement bedroom, mold on the roof decking and improper ventilation of the attic area).
I recommended that she call out that the guy was not state licensed (HI) and she “didn’t want to make trouble”. I told her to talk with her Broker, since she was “aware” of a felony, and if she didn’t report it, she would be liable, as would her Broker and the client (seller) could sue.
I also talked to some (HI) members of the state commission (without revealing the details or persons) and they told me that this would be procecuted ($10K fine for the unlicensed guy).
Waiting to hear back.
The broker said that he thought that code inspectors were more highly “qualified” than the state licensed HIs (not true) and that the licensing requirement was “just a recommendaton, not a requirement”.
Comments?