A home inspection (bedek bayit) is essential for anyone buying an apartment, new or resale. Getting a home inspection early gives you time to examine the property in depth, catch construction defects, and avoid unnecessary stress and pressure down the road.
An independent, thorough check by an engineer, sometimes together with a real-estate appraiser, gives you a legally valid report listing any construction defects found. That report makes it relatively easy to hold the contractor responsible for the cost of repairs.
Each defect carries a date after which responsibility for repair shifts to you as the owner, so it pays to have the inspection done as early as possible rather than put it off.
Why the legally required contractor inspection isn't enough
For new apartments, the law requires the contractor, or someone acting on its behalf, to initiate a construction-defect check on the property. In practice that inspection does not always happen properly, if at all: many contractors do not bother to run an orderly inspection, and even when they do, they do not always share the full findings with residents.
Even something that looks minor, like a leak, can mean high repair costs for the contractor, which works against the contractor's own interest in finding it. For these reasons, it pays to go a step further rather than rely on the law being followed: find a professional, reputable company that runs the inspection for you, the buyer.
What the inspection actually covers
If you have chosen a reputable inspection company, you do not need to know every detail of the process. But it helps to know what you are paying for, and to make sure you get the full service, done properly.
The first thing the inspection covers is the surroundings, from the immediate area and the building itself to the wider neighborhood. This takes in the quality of the building committee, any disputes between neighbors, noise and cleanliness issues, the local crime rate, the standard of nearby schools, and similar factors.
The second part covers technical construction defects: leaks in the piping, mismatches between the building plans and reality, defects in the walls or electrical system, and waterproofing problems and their consequences, such as rot and mold.
A licensed engineer qualified in construction-defect inspection carries out this part. Only someone with that training can spot problems above and below the surface, and knows the most current building regulations and laws.
The third part, where a company offers a full-service package, brings in a certified real-estate appraiser. A reliable appraisal, built on the engineer's findings, gives you a fairly accurate picture of the number that matters most when buying a home: whether the whole deal makes financial sense.
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