One of the best services offered by full-service moving companies is packing and unpacking. On moving day, a professional crew arrives, packs up your belongings into the boxes and materials they brought, and by the end of the same day has unloaded everything and put it in place.
An easy process, and not expensive given the convenience. But before you rush your belongings into the new apartment, there is one thing you should do first: a comprehensive, professional home inspection of that apartment before the move.
This article looks at why a home inspection (bedek bayit) matters for a resale apartment you are moving into, and why it should happen before you fix the moving date. Finding construction defects before you move in can save you a great deal of trouble, and it is the right way to start out in a new home with a calm heart.
What a home inspection covers before you move in
Professional home inspection companies examine the apartment from every angle. Infrastructure comes first: plumbing faults often need a building contractor to break through tiles or walls to reach the faulty pipes and replace or repair them.
It would be a shame to pay for a full moving service only to discover, right after you finally settle into your new home, that you now have to live through a major renovation in the middle of your living room.
A thorough inspection can turn up many other faults: structural issues that need a renovation contractor, faults in the electrical system, faulty shutter or window mechanisms, assorted construction defects, badly positioned kitchen cabinets, leaks in the bathroom and toilets.
You clearly want all of these resolved before you move in, and it is far better to fix them now than to renovate while you are living there. That is why it pays to call in a home inspection company before you move, and before you book the movers and lock in a date, so the repairs the inspection turns up can be done in the days before the move.
This is worth doing even for a rented apartment. Tell the landlord you plan to have it inspected, especially if you intend to live there for a long lease. Few things are as frustrating as dealing with repairs and renovations mid-lease, paying full rent while living on a construction site full of dust and sand.
The engineers of Arad Bedek Bayit, led by building engineer Ron Arad, whom courts appoint as their own expert on construction defects. The company has been inspecting apartments and buildings since 2001. Engineer Ron Arad · More about the company