Few people realize that a home inspection (bedek bayit) is one of the most valuable safeguards you can have when you end up negotiating, or even in a legal dispute, over a property you were interested in or already bought. The report it produces is a valid, authoritative legal document, and it can tip the scales of justice firmly in your favor.
What is a home inspection, and why does it matter?
A home inspection is a building inspection aimed at uncovering construction defects and faults hidden from view. It is most often carried out when someone is buying a property and wants an up-to-date, reliable picture of its real condition.
A professional inspection can turn up construction defects across many areas, electricity, sewage, plumbing, structure and more, at varying degrees of severity. This matters because a contractor or a property's previous owners do not always disclose the defects it has, and they are not always even aware of them themselves.
Only an engineer who specializes in building inspection, with real experience locating construction defects, detecting leaks and identifying sealing faults, may carry one out. As an objective, independent party, the engineer submits the findings as a detailed report for potential buyers, who can then reassess the situation: go ahead with the purchase, renovate the property, negotiate a discount or compensation, or walk away from the deal entirely. A home inspection can significantly lower a property's price when it turns up substantial defects.
Home inspections and the courts
A thorough, detailed home inspection report describing construction defects that are expensive, or even impossible, to fix, such as defects in a building's structural frame, is admissible evidence in court.
Sometimes it points to defects that fail to meet the standard and endanger lives, or to expired materials the contractor chose to use. In those cases, the report acts as a critical warning that may protect your life.
If your inspection turned up serious problems, your first step can be to approach the contractor or sellers and demand a price reduction based on the findings. Where the faults are numerous and serious enough to raise real concern, they can be grounds to cancel the deal.
And if you end up in a legal dispute with the property's owners, you can ask the engineer who carried out your inspection to testify on your behalf: as an expert witness, their conclusions are difficult to challenge, which works in your favor.
Getting a professional home inspection before you buy a property is one of the most important steps you can take. It can save you significant, unwanted expense, and it buys you real peace of mind about the purchase.
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