We were purchasing a home in the Silver Spring area about 2 years ago and we had Safehome do the home inspection. We didn't think anything of the inspection because we thought that Safehome would be professional and know the rules and laws of Maryland Department of Labor and Licensing and they have advertised on there website that they follow strictly by the National Association of Home Inspectors (NAHI). A year past by after purchasing the home and during a yearly furnace maintenance the company advised that we might want to change our furnace because it was old and we could probably get a unit that was more energy efficient. Our furnace is a 10 year old oil furnace, I know absolutely nothing about this unit but I noticed from the time I purchase the home the flue was discharging some kind of material. So I called several companies to take a look at the unit and give an estimate of how much it would cost to replace the unit. This was definately good timing because we had just found out that we are having a baby and oil got pretty expensive the previous year. When they looked at the flue the representative advised that this too would need to be replaced because it started to eat away the flue! He advised that I would need to get a flue specialist to come take a look at it. Long story short the flue needs to be replaced because it had HOLES in it and CO is leaking from the flue; cost $2500. I was furious, why didn't the inspector catch this? I got a lesson about oil and it has a discharge that turns acidic and eats the metal. When I called SAFEHOME the owner Edy Lopes said that it's not their responsibility to check the flue.in fact we are going to court and his lawyer is even arguing that fact. FACT: SAFEHOME and Edy Lopes. Check Maryland DLLR 09.36.07.09 it states that home inspectors are required to inspect flues and NAHI Standard of practice page 11 code 11.2.5 says the same thing. Edy Lopes actually came to my home and admitted they missed the flue, he actually offered to give me $600 dollars. What makes it worse is that he said that their should be a CO detector and there is none and that should have also been pointed out. When I told him that we could have died from CO exposure and the fact that I am having a child and replace the unit and the flue is too expensive we don't have the money for this, he actually told me "I WAS BEING DRAMATIC".
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