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Ant Infestation |
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I always carry bolt cutters and an extra
brand new Master padlock when performing home inspections. The
reasons being that all too often Sellers don't have or just
forget to leave the key to their crawlspace either at the
house or with their Realtors.
Now we always make sure that it is very
clear that the crawlspace will be inspected and that access
needs to be provided, but all too often this is forgotten and
it would require that portion of the inspection to be
postponed and for us to return at a later time. This is never
a good prospect for the buyer, his Realtor or the
inspector since all are under the time constrains of the sales
contract.
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Just recently I ran
into this situation yet again. During my inspection of the
house interior I noticed that the kitchen floor was sloping
towards the outside wall. When I applied weight in that
particular area the floor felt spongy and sunk slightly under
pressure. Well, there was just no way I was leaving without a
very thorough look at what might be below.
When we got to the crawlspace entrance we found that the
access hatch was
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padlocked and the key was nowhere to be
found. The buyer's agent quickly got on his cell phone, called
the seller and requested permission to cut the lock open. With
permission having been secured from the seller I cut away the
padlock and enter the crawlspace.
When I was in the general area of where I presumed the damage
to be I began to pull back the insulation to find this. I'm
sure you can all imagine the expression on the faces of both
my client and his Realtor. The damage wasn't as bad as it
could have been given the infestation of carpenter ants. I
later found out that the total cost of remediation and repairs
did not exceed $3500.00 and all parties were pleased with the
out come. I just keep saying it, bolt cutters and padlocks,
Inspectors - never leave home without them.
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