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How is a home inspection (bedek bayit) of a resale apartment carried out? An inspection is important for a new home, and all the more so for a resale (second-hand) apartment. Here you will find information, prices and guidance.
Arad Bedek Bayit: a home inspection is a must for a resale apartment, and it has to be done professionally. Not every home inspection company has the experience needed for a comprehensive inspection of a resale apartment before purchase. Before you order one, find out what the service includes, which tests are performed and whether the company has the equipment required for a thorough inspection.
Before you sign: the two tests to have done
We recommend not signing a contract (or at the very least adding a suitable clause to the contract that refers to the findings still to come) before the resale apartment has been inspected and you have the findings of the following two tests:
- A comprehensive engineering home inspection to locate construction defects.
An expert engineer examines the apartment with advanced, non-destructive instruments.
The inspection finds construction defects, severe and minor, such as problems of dampness, safety and stability,
slopes, escape routes, sunken flooring, cracking and so on.
See a sample report: resale apartment
- A combined radiation test (cellular + electrical) and, if needed, a radon gas test
A certified radiation surveyor measures whether the electromagnetic radiation (from cellular antennas) and the ELF radiation (from power lines and from electrical cabinets in the building and the apartment) stay within the limits the standards allow.
If they exceed them, solutions are proposed where possible.
In ground-level houses, or in living rooms below ground, a further test is recommended: measuring the level of radon gas.
See a sample report: radiation report
Read more about why a radiation test matters as part of an engineering home inspection
And for more background: radiation hazards
Other recommended checks, as needed, depending on the details of the home
(the advisers at our branches can help you choose the checks that fit your case):
1. A radon test.
2. A review by a real-estate appraiser, covering building rights, building violations and the zoning of adjacent land.
3. A neighbor profile check.
4. An earthquake resistance check.
5. Advice from a structural engineer on possible renovations.
And a few more words on the decision to inspect an apartment before you buy it…
How it differs from inspecting a new apartment
A building inspection of a resale apartment follows much the same procedure as the inspection of a new apartment, but the purpose is different. In a new apartment from a contractor, the inspection identifies the construction and planning defects so that the contractor repairs them while his warranty is in force. In a resale apartment, we identify the defects in order to decide whether the purchase is worthwhile.
When you weigh up whether to buy a resale apartment, many parameters come into play. A building inspection that locates construction defects helps with the ones that concern the quality of the existing construction and the problems that may appear later. See also the ceramic flooring standard in a home inspection.
Like having a used car tested before you buy it
People often compare it to buying a car. When we consider buying a used car, we take it to a licensed test center before we decide, and wait for results that show us the car's true condition. How will it serve us from here on?
Everyone understands that the car's internal condition is critical to its value and to whether it is worth buying. The test may be expensive relative to the price of the car, yet we usually do not skip it.
And what about inspecting an apartment before you buy it?
The main question: how will the apartment serve you?
So many considerations go into a purchase that we can lose sight of the main one: how will the apartment serve us in the years ahead? We look for a particular neighborhood, sometimes even a particular street, a number of rooms and a layout that suit our needs, the right floor, the exposures we prefer, suitable neighbors, a view and more.
Among all these considerations, the inspection and the apartment's internal condition do not always get the effort they deserve.
What an inspection of a resale apartment finds
An untrained eye, without the right instruments, will struggle to find the problems and construction defects that exist today, and will certainly not recognize defects that are going to develop later, judging by the data measured during the inspection.
Buyers are often "saved" from buying an apartment that would have caused them a great deal of grief, as well as substantial repair bills. Dampness problems that are hard to see turn up because the measuring instruments pick up their traces and the engineers identify their source; cracks that point to problems in the structural frame are diagnosed; design failures that weigh on the quality of life are identified, and more.
The inspection of a resale apartment is essential. Unlike the buyer of an apartment from a contractor, who can demand that construction defects be repaired, the buyer of a resale apartment is left alone with every construction defect found later.
He has no one to complain to, and no one will bear responsibility for the repair (except in special cases where it can be proven that the seller maliciously concealed important information about the condition of the apartment).
What else the inspection tells you
Apart from the critical defects found in the inspection, which affect the decision itself, there are many defects that will not rule out the purchase but that buyers very much need to know about. Various defects can then be repaired before you move in, which makes life in the apartment considerably easier.
Another aspect, no less important, is the apartment's monetary value. Construction defects discovered in the inspection must be taken into account, and the cost of the repairs should come off the price agreed with the seller. Sometimes a detailed, comprehensive engineering report presented by the buyer leads the seller to lower the initial price significantly.
In summary: an expert engineer's inspection helps the buyer in two important processes
1. The decision: a professional expert opinion separates the substantial construction defects from the trivial ones and reveals defects hidden from the observer's eye. An expert engineer can, for example, expose a dampness problem that the seller hid by plastering and painting the wall.
2. The negotiation: with an engineering report in hand that lists the defects in the apartment and the repair costs, the buyer has a significant bargaining tool in the negotiation with the seller.
Home inspection for a resale apartment | Home inspections for resale apartments