Home Inspection Checklist for BC Buyers

Exterior and structure

• Roof. Age, material, condition, flashings, moss. On the Peninsula a cedar or asphalt roof rarely lasts as long as the manufacturer claims. Ask for an estimate of remaining life.
• Drainage and perimeter drains. The number one issue in Lower Mainland houses. Inspectors look at grading, downspouts and signs of water at the foundation. For homes older than 25 years I often recommend a separate camera scope of the perimeter drains, which an inspector does not do.
• Foundation and walls. Cracks, efflorescence, bowing, settlement. Hairline cracks are common; horizontal ones are not.
• Siding and windows. Rot at the bottom of wood trim, failed seals on double glazing, and whether a 1990s home has had its original windows replaced.
• Decks, stairs, retaining walls. Rot, fastenings, and on a hillside lot the condition of any retaining structures.

Interior, systems and the BC-specific list

• Electrical. Panel capacity, aluminum wiring in 1960s and 1970s homes, knob and tube in anything older, and whether a suite has its own panel. Some insurers will not cover aluminum or knob and tube without remediation.
• Plumbing. Supply and drain materials, water pressure, hot water tank age. The big one in BC: polybutylene (Poly-B) pipe, installed widely from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s. It fails at the fittings and many insurers surcharge or exclude it.
• Heating and cooling. Furnace age and service record, heat pump condition, ductwork. Ask whether the gas fireplace has been serviced.
• Attic and insulation. Ventilation, moisture staining, and vermiculite insulation, which may contain asbestos in homes insulated before 1990.
• Asbestos generally. Pre-1990 drywall compound, flooring and ceiling texture may contain it. It is not a crisis unless you renovate, but it changes renovation costs.
• Oil tanks. Homes built before about 1975 in White Rock and South Surrey often had a buried oil tank. An inspector will not find it. A separate oil tank scan, a few hundred dollars, will. A leaking tank is a five or six figure problem.
• Moisture and mould. Bathrooms, under sinks, basement corners, and the smell when you first walk in.

If it is a condo or townhome

The inspection of the unit is the smaller half. The building is the bigger half, and it lives in the documents: the depreciation report, two years of minutes, the Form B, the insurance summary and the financials. The inspector can look at the building envelope from the outside and comment on rainscreen for buildings from the 1980s and 1990s, the leaky condo era. The minutes tell you whether the roof is scheduled, whether there has been water ingress, and whether a special levy is coming. I read every page with my clients. It is the least glamorous part of the job and the one that saves them the most.

What an inspection does not cover

Anything hidden, moved or turned off. Inspectors do not open walls, move furniture, test for asbestos or mould in a lab, scope drains, scan for oil tanks or assess the strata. They comment on what they can see and reach. If the seller has stacked boxes against a basement wall, say so and ask for them to be moved before the inspection.

How to use the report

Every house has a list. The question is whether anything on it changes the price or the decision. I sort a report into three piles: maintenance that every owner faces, items worth a price adjustment or a seller repair, and the deal-breakers that make us walk. Then we go back to the seller with the second pile, in writing, with quotes if we have them. In the market we have had recently in White Rock and South Surrey, sellers have been willing to negotiate on real findings. Fabricated ones, or a request to knock $20,000 off for a dishwasher, go nowhere.

The short version

• Book a licensed inspector and attend the inspection. Ask questions. Take photos.
• For older homes add the two things inspectors do not do: a drain scope and an oil tank scan.
• Know the era problems: Poly-B, aluminum wiring, vermiculite, pre-1990 asbestos, 1980s and 1990s rainscreen.
• On a strata, the documents are the inspection.
• Sort the findings, negotiate the real ones, and be willing to walk.

I keep a short list of inspectors on the Peninsula who are thorough and who explain things in plain language. Ask me and I will send it.