In April of last year 2008 my wife and I employed the services of Rob Major, an home inspector recommended by our real estate agent. Rob seemed like a nice guy and appeared to be very thorough in his inspection providing what seemed to be legit documentation of the inspection.
Rob reccomended that the house had no "big" issues other than the HVAC which we we aware of and had no issues replacing. I had specifically asked Rob about the age of the roof on the property. Being first time home buyers and having three of our top housing prospects available for us I wanted to ensure no issues would arise that may impact our decision.
Rob informed me that the roof was indeed "new" and told me and my father that he believes the roof was replaced within the last five years. This was a relief as we didn't want to purchase a home with a major amount of work needing done.
We purchased the home, and all was well... Until a couple of months ago when a wind storm came through Northern Va and blew a couple of pieces of shingles off of our roof. I called a roofing contractor to come by and give an estimate to do the work, as it would have been much less than the cost of my insurance deductible. The roofer came down and showed me pictures he had taken. He told me that the roof was original to the house, which is twenty three years old, there was a hole in the side of the roof, and the plywood was bowed, and the fire retardent boards were actually defective.
I contacted Rob who denied telling me that he said the roof was replaced within the last five years, and by the way avoided my calls for several weeks. I told Rob that by him mis representing the roof he lured us in to purchase the home under false pretenses. Rob offered that he would personally bring by a refund for the home inspection. He drove out early the next morning and attempted to get my wife to sign a release in order to get the refund. The release claimed we released him from any and all liabilities pertaining to the roof, and house. We refused the refund andare awaiting legal action.
I had another ASHI certified home inspector look at the roof and he promptly noticed several indicators that the roof was original and needed replaced.
Please be careful if you are looking at Home inspecdtors in the Northern Va area. You can lose a lot of money if you hire the wrong one.
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