Unbelievable -- Client wants concrete block walls between units as "major defect"

Specific Inspection Topics Commercial Inspections / CCPIA
1

This has to take the grand prize for clients from hell.

I inspected a 1970s strip mall type of building and the client is dissatisfied with my report and doesn’t want to pay me because I did not report the structurally sound concrete block walls between the units as a “major defect requiring a structural engineer to remove it and support the structure with I-beams or other means of support to enable reconfiguration of the units.”

I’ve never heard of such a thing. Nobody’s going to force him to reconfigure the building so it has less units. It’s like saying a 2-family flat is “defective” because it has separate entrances for the units.

He also wanted me to report the lavatories as not being handicap accessible though they were and the metal frame windows as “defective” though they were sound (though I did report one very minor crack near the edge of one window).

Truly amazing what some sleazy individuals want you to do to help them beat down a seller! :roll:

2

How in the world did he come to receive a copy of the report prior to paying for it, in the first place?

3

Looked it over.

4

Was he changing the use of the building? and did he make it clear to you his intentions if he was?