Paid $500 for a pre-inspection on a house that fell through

Hired a guy last month to do a pre-offer inspection on a bungalow near Whyte Ave, cost me $500 out of pocket. The sellers accepted another offer before I even got the report back. Anyone else thrown cash at inspections that went nowhere?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_wesley1d ago

Man that stings, I feel your pain! I did the same thing last spring on a house in Garneau, paid a guy $450 to crawl through everything and the sellers pulled out two days later because they got a cash offer. It really makes you wonder if there's a better way to do this, like maybe inspectors should offer some kind of partial refund if the deal falls through through no fault of yours. I know they have to get paid for their time, but dropping that kind of cash on nothing hurts, especially when you're already stressing about finding a place. At least now you know what to look for in that type of house, even if you didn't get to use the report. I'd be tempted to ask the inspector if they can apply that fee toward a future inspection if you find another place soon.

the_mary1d ago

Right? The only thing I learned from my $500 wasted inspection was that old houses have spiders, which I already knew from watching them crawl across my ceiling for free.