Case of the missing building engineer
I got a new lesson in “faulty disclosure” yesterday, one that won’t be forgotten for quite a while. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that Tomacor demands access to all common areas when we inspect condominiums and town homes. We insist that the agent or building engineer walks us through the boiler room, the party room, provides access to the roof, and takes us to all other common areas. We demand this from our clients as they book their appointments and they, in turn, demand it from their agents.
Despite the clear and specific demand to see the common areas and the clear and specific reasoning behind wanting to see the common areas, we still get real estate agents who call us “fanatics” and work to prevent the common area disclosure. Yesterday’s inspection is the perfect example of this “faulty disclosure”
It was my second time working with the client, an IIT PhD professor, and her real estate agent. Both the client and the agent were familiar with the need to inspect the common areas. The seller’s agent, on the other hand, was familiar with my company’s tough reputation and did not approve of our request to inspect the common areas. She exclaimed, ” I have never heard of such a thing!. What could you possibly see in the common areas that you could understand?” she also said, “I have been in the business over 15 years and have never had an inspector demand to see the roof. This is totally unacceptable!” Her last comment was, “I think the engineer took the morning off, or the property manager has him running to the hardware store. Most likely, he won’t be back for hours.”
We had jumped through the first hoop of getting a good inspection, confrontation with the real estate agent. Now, we had to see the place. The engineer eventually showed up and showed us the roof, but he walked so fast that I had to tell him to stop on multiple occasions so I could finish taking notes and photos.
We were finishing the boiler room and the garage when my client stopped me to show me where the glass single pane entry door was chipped and cracked from rubbing against the door jamb. As I stopped to note this, the engineer ran away. Both the buyer’s agent and seller’s agent were with him and said nothing as he vanished into thin air. Left to be seen was the main electrical room and switch gear, the fire sprinkler room, the cold water main, and the air conditioning system chiller. All total we were denied access to millions of dollars worth of equipment.
Will this equipment fail during my clients’ tenure at the property? Nobody knows. Multiple phone calls lead no where. More importantly, we were snookered out of completing our inspection by an “artful dodger” who disappeared mid stream.