It’s absolutely terrible what is happening to Ms. Denton, Mr. Dye, and their children, but that was well before licensing and regulation of the home inspection industry began. These changes will ensure much better qualified inspectors are working in BC, which may very well help to prevent something like this happening in the future. For me, that makes the regulations worth every penny it costs responsible home inspectors to become, and maintain their licensing.

Like every business you have to take the good with the bad. It is a tragic thing that happened to that poor family in Pinantan. You have to remember that the regulations were not in effect when that family purchased the grow-op home and the inspector that inspected the home is not an individual that is working in the business at this time. We would like to think that inspectors will find such obvious problems with homes but you also have to look at how negligent the previous home owner was for not disclosing this information (which is why he is being sued). This previous home owner could have done a very good job covering this problem up. Hard to say.

We have yet to see how the new regulations will affect the quality of an inspectors services. Hopefully consumers are working with their own buyer’s representation when purchasing a home and get referred to a reputable inspector who is knowledgeable and competent on every level.

Another thing that consumers or buyers can do before buying a property is talk to neighbours. Surrounding neighbours are a great source of information and definitely do help sometimes disclose any issues that weren’t previously known.