Thoughtful agent in Ottawa: comments on a pre-purchase home inspection. Went on an inspection today in a very important older home in Highland Park. It is an older home, beautifully renovated and expanded. There is plenty of older features typical of a home built in the 1930. One foot high baseboard, dark moldings and wavy glass in the interior french style sliding partition doors. I like the 9 foot ceilings and natural sponged ceiling texture.
The basement is extensively rebuilt but there isn’t a basement drain or sump pump pit. So here is the point; the Buiding Inspector responds to the question about high water table and what happens to possible back flow or water from the ground. He says if there is a flood you better get your canoe. Now my complaint is that it’s not realistic, accurate, truthful, or well informed to quip on haveing a canoe ready! Better to get a mechanical pump to remove standing water or even more important is the question; is the area vulnerable to any kind of historic looding or back up !
The basement doesn’t smell of humidity and I didn’t notice the telling odour of humidity when I visited the property before it was renovated some two years ago. Comments from an inspector can create unfounded doubt, and apprehension. So why does an inspector make such a comment? Humour? A desire to self agrandise? or is it a nervous comment in the presence of the buyer? My thought is that it is simply uncalled for. https://martinelder.ca/