The Home Team Inspection Service

Long story short-- we had John come and perform a home inspection and radon test. He arrived with another man, called him a mechanical expert who would check the boiler, hot water heater, appliances etc. Everything went fine, he showed us some plumbing that needed to be replaced (which we knew, as it was an older house in desperate need of updating). We closed on the house five weeks later, and went back to check it out once it was officially ours, and smelled gas. We called the gas company and it turned out we had carbon monoxide coming through the cooktop and multiple gas leaks in the basement. Both the gas company worker and the repairman who came to fix it said these were not new leaks, especially because there were so many in the basement. Bottom line, he was a nice guy but a home inspection should include a carbon monoxide and gas leak check. We couldn't move in, had to have the heat and water shut off in the middle of January etc etc. It was a nightmare. I called him after we got settled a few weeks later and complained. He begrudgingly said he would refund our inspection money (275 of the 400), but it took two more phone calls for him to actually send it. His argument was that we knew the house needed work. I say, there is a HUGE difference between needing work and not livable. Imagine if we had moved in with our infant and ignored the gas smell--the previous owners had! (I talked to the guy a few days after and he said he thought the smell was a normal thing to come from the cooktop...) In any case we were grateful to the NYSEG workers. We had to pay a few hundred dollars for the repair, reschedule the movers and pay for 3 nights in a hotel from something that could have been avoided--and been covered by the previous owners!