Should I get a home inspection on my condo? Is the status certificate condition enough?
I was working with a client looking to buy a loft in King West. We walked into a renovated suite in a low rise building around 12 years old. As soon as she walked into the suite, she was completely in love with the space. After viewing it a second time with her friends and a couple of nights sleeping on it, she decided she wanted to write an offer. To protect my client’s best interest, I advised her to make the offer conditional on financing (she’s preapproved but we wanted to make sure the bank appraised it in line with our offer), a status certificate AND a home inspection by a qualified home inspector.
Since the suite was renovated, I wanted to ensure the renovation was done properly, even though the listing agent insisted it was done by a qualified contractor but he couldn’t provide the name. Most condominium offers are only conditional on status certificate and financing. In lieu of a home inspection, most agent advise buyers make the status certificate condition. Since the heating, roof, windows, and most plumbing and electrical of the building are common elements… they would be covered by the status certificate report.
Every 3 years, the building management does a reserve fund study and send in engineers to inspect all the common elements and they outline the needed repairs to maintain the building in good standing and budget the renovation accordingly. If they suite hadn’t been renovated, I would have thought the status certificate was enough. To summarize the home inspection… the renovation was poorly done and the workmanship was questionable. There’s a total of $7k worth of repairs needed to be done to the suite. The condo inspector said the renovation was done by an amateur lacking the right equipment. The staircase was missing a railing which was obvious, but to install a glass staircase in keeping with the loft would need to be custom and was estimated to be $3k to $4k. The dishwasher was leaking, the shower faucet was leaking, my client didn’t anticipate this many problems. There were too many faults on top of the staircase. The repairs to the renovation were expensive and time consuming to fix which is not easy for my client to arrange as a working professional.
It gets even worse… some of the water supply lines were made by Kitec. The condo inspector stuck his camera behind the walls to take the pictures of this material. This piping has been banned due to corrosion and leaking problems. It was used in some condominiums built from 1995 to 2007. There are multi-million dollar law suits associated with this product. This means that all the water lines in this building with this material would have to be replaced because many insurance companies wouldn’t cover water damage as a result of the Kitec. Was there any mention of Kitec in the “status certificate” of this building? NO.
The building management is probably not even aware this product is in the building. To rectify the issue in the building, the condo inspector estimated that the owners would be responsible for a future repair cost of an estimated $8,000 – $10,000 per unit. With the condo inspection condition, my client was released from the agreement and her deposit was returned. This got me thinking about some of the buyers I encounter. They want to act as their own agent, looking for a property on the internet and go directly to the listing agent to get “a better deal”. They think that having their own agent brings them little benefit. With the average downtown condo costing around $400k, that’s a serious investment. Having an advocate that is a full time real estate professional, protecting your best interest is absolutely critical if a buyer wants to avoid any unpleasant surprises and minimize future expenses.
I was working with a client looking to buy a loft in King West. We walked into a renovated suite in a low rise building around 12 years old. As soon as she walked into the suite, she was completely in love with the space. After viewing it a second time with her friends and a couple of nights sleeping on it, she decided she wanted to write an offer. To protect my client’s best interest, I advised her to make the offer conditional on financing (she’s preapproved but we wanted to make sure the bank appraised it in line with our offer), a status certificate AND a home inspection by a qualified home inspector.
Since the suite was renovated, I wanted to ensure the renovation was done properly, even though the listing agent insisted it was done by a qualified contractor but he couldn’t provide the name. Most condominium offers are only conditional on status certificate and financing. In lieu of a home inspection, most agent advise buyers make the status certificate condition. Since the heating, roof, windows, and most plumbing and electrical of the building are common elements… they would be covered by the status certificate report.
Every 3 years, the building management does a reserve fund study and send in engineers to inspect all the common elements and they outline the needed repairs to maintain the building in good standing and budget the renovation accordingly. If they suite hadn’t been renovated, I would have thought the status certificate was enough. To summarize the home inspection… the renovation was poorly done and the workmanship was questionable. There’s a total of $7k worth of repairs needed to be done to the suite. The condo inspector said the renovation was done by an amateur lacking the right equipment. The staircase was missing a railing which was obvious, but to install a glass staircase in keeping with the loft would need to be custom and was estimated to be $3k to $4k. The dishwasher was leaking, the shower faucet was leaking, my client didn’t anticipate this many problems. There were too many faults on top of the staircase. The repairs to the renovation were expensive and time consuming to fix which is not easy for my client to arrange as a working professional.
It gets even worse… some of the water supply lines were made by Kitec. The condo inspector stuck his camera behind the walls to take the pictures of this material. This piping has been banned due to corrosion and leaking problems. It was used in some condominiums built from 1995 to 2007. There are multi-million dollar law suits associated with this product. This means that all the water lines in this building with this material would have to be replaced because many insurance companies wouldn’t cover water damage as a result of the Kitec. Was there any mention of Kitec in the “status certificate” of this building? NO.
The building management is probably not even aware this product is in the building. To rectify the issue in the building, the condo inspector estimated that the owners would be responsible for a future repair cost of an estimated $8,000 – $10,000 per unit. With the condo inspection condition, my client was released from the agreement and her deposit was returned. This got me thinking about some of the buyers I encounter. They want to act as their own agent, looking for a property on the internet and go directly to the listing agent to get “a better deal”. They think that having their own agent brings them little benefit. With the average downtown condo costing around $400k, that’s a serious investment. Having an advocate that is a full time real estate professional, protecting your best interest is absolutely critical if a buyer wants to avoid any unpleasant surprises and minimize future expenses.