Home Owner Questions Why Building Inspectors Did Not Find Defects
posted 2:30 pm Thu July 24, 2008 - Daniel Island, SC
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Two Daniel Island homes are contaminated with mold and the homeowners are wondering how building inspectors did'nt find the defects. City of Charleston building officials say they are not to blame.
“The average time to build a home now can take ninety days where a decade or two ago you were approaching 240 days,” Construction Attorney Patrick McDonald explained.
Some say that speed is leading to a lack of quality. Builders and contractors are cutting costs by hiring unskilled workers and they are making better profits by finishing jobs early.
Benjamin Allen’s home is now infested with mold. Experts blame a lack of flashing on the windows. Water seeped in, mold grew and began to make his family sick.
“It truly begs the question of how these inspectors missed this on so many homes,” Allen said.
It is often difficult for building inspectors to catch every defect in a home. Most inspectors look at ten to sixteen houses a day. The numbers of deficient homes on the market is on the rise.
“It is a builder problem. The builder is always ultimately responsible for meeting code. We’re just there to verify good work,” Chief Building Official of the City of Charleston Tom Scholtens said.
When the Allen’s home was built in 1999, inspectors did not have to be licensed by the state, but City of Charleston officials required them to be certified. That fact is not easing Benjamin Allen’s mind.
“Why they missed this I don’t know. I wish they would have caught it. Something as simple as flashing the windows could have prevented all these problems,” Allen added.
Those problems will take thousands of dollars and months to fix.
At this time, there is a backlog of lawsuits in Charleston and Berkeley Counties. Homeowners are suing builders for defects in their houses.
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