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Washington Post
19-04-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
How much do you know about home inspections?
One of the most important steps home buyers can take — especially first-timers — is to have a thorough inspection before they finalize their purchase. Whether you have plenty of experience from owning a home and understanding its systems, or you've always relied on your landlord to fix any issues, it's best to know the quirks and potential problems of any property to avoid starring in your own version of the 1980s movie 'The Money Pit.' Take this quiz to see if you know what to do before, during and after a home inspection. No. 'The home inspection is an opportunity for the buyer to gain valuable insight into the condition of the home from their home inspector,' said Anslie Stokes, a Realtor with Corcoran McEnearney in Washington. 'Having the seller hovering around will not help the process. But a seller should make accessing the roof, main water shut off, break panel, etc. as clear as possible. And both the seller and listing agent should be readily available by phone for questions.' No. 'Don't be silly,' said Morgan Knull, an associate broker with RE/Max Gateway in Washington. 'A home inspection is not a license to renovate at a seller's expense.' However, Stokes said it depends on what your contract says. 'If your inspection contingency allows you to request repairs or credits in lieu of repairs then you can certainly ask, but you should likely expect pushback if the dishwasher is still functioning properly,' Stokes said. Yes 'There is generally no prohibition on asking for repair records but also generally no obligation on a seller's part to provide them,' Stokes said. 'That being said, transparency builds trust so ideally the seller would be open to providing any information that can help alleviate concerns.' Knull recommended asking the inspector to use a moisture meter to detect any active moisture presence under the sink. No 'Sometimes accessing a roof isn't a possibility for an inspector — weather, roofing types and association rules prevent us from walking many roofs,' said Andrew 'Drew' McNeill, owner of D.C. Home Authority, a home inspection service in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. 'However, that doesn't mean an inspector can't assess the roof and give valuable information as to age, type and average life expectancy.' Knull suggested that the inspector buy a drone. 'Or borrow one from a teenager,' he said. Although it may not be necessary, if your contract allows for it and you're worried about the roof, you can hire a roofing inspector or company for an additional assessment, Stokes said. No 'A good home inspection will include a review of the electrical system and note any visible defects or concerns,' Stokes said. 'It cannot, however, provide a guarantee that the house is safe to live in because the scope of the inspection is largely limited to what the inspector can visually see or test with limited tools.' On the other hand, McNeill said inspectors can get a general idea about the quality of the electrical system. 'Home inspectors cannot see through walls any better than you can, however by looking at the main panel and the sub-panels to assess wiring types and workmanship — and by testing the system — we can generate a pretty good idea as to whether the system has been updated,' McNeill said. No 'Cracks in foundations can be concerning, or not that big of a deal,' McNeill said. 'It depends upon the size and type of the crack. If it is one of concern, generally inspectors will suggest a structural engineer to come for further investigation and evaluation.' What you do next depends on how much you like the house, Knull said. 'The next step for buyers is a costly structural analysis to determine the cause and correction of the crack,' he said. No 'It's not a 'problem'; it's a discretionary home improvement that a buyer can make after a purchase,' Knull said. But, as with most home inspection issues, what you do depends on your contract. 'If your inspection contingency allows you to request repairs or credits in lieu of repairs, then you can certainly ask for the seller to insulate these pipes,' Stokes said. 'But all repairs or credits for repairs are generally negotiable between the buyer and the seller. It's unlikely that the seller 'must' make this repair unless they want to satisfy the buyer so the contract does not become void.' No 'Windows not latching are something that we come across all the time, particularly in homes with historic windows, but what is or is not a dealbreaker for anyone is a highly personal issue,' McNeill said. Stokes said whether it's a dealbreaker depends on the circumstances. 'Is the house a complete fixer-upper and the buyer is planning to replace all the windows anyway? If so then no, this is not likely to be a dealbreaker,' she said. 'Is the house in a historic district where window replacements or repairs must be approved by a historic commission? If so, then the cost of repairing or replacing the windows could be extremely expensive and the buyer might think twice about proceeding with the contract.' Yes 'Buyers are responsible for all inspection costs,' Knull said. 'But instead of a sewer scope, why not propose a home inspection deliverable for the seller that says, 'Laundry room sink to drain properly at time of closing.'' Stokes recommends asking the seller to investigate and clear the blockage, which could be something as simple as a clog. If it's an older house without an obvious clog, then a sewer scope might be required to see if the main waste line for the house needs to be replaced. 'These kinds of situations are when it is absolutely critical to have knowledgeable agents representing both parties so the issue can be negotiated fairly and fully resolved so that no litigation issues arise post-settlement,' Stokes said. No 'Permit information is largely public information in D.C., so the buyer can see what records exist online through the Department of Buildings portal,' Stokes said. 'That being said, just because a permit was issued does not mean the deck is 'legal' or 'up to code.'' However, Knull said, if there's a code violation citation that is active and unresolved, that is treated as a title issue that must be addressed.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tom Hanks's daughter says her mother ‘never recovered' from his fame: ‘His stature in the world obliterated her'
Tom Hanks's daughter, E.A. Hanks, opened up about how her mother struggled to process the Forrest Gump actor's growing fame. E.A. — which stands for Elizabeth Anne — was the daughter of Hanks's first wife, Susan Dillingham. The former couple also shared son Colin Hanks. Dillingham and Hanks met as theater students at Sacramento State University and were married from 1978 to 1987. In her new memoir, The 10: A Memoir of Family And The Open Road, E.A. embarks on a six-month-long road trip from Los Angeles to Palatka, Florida, where her mother's family is from, to learn more about her before she died from lung cancer in 2002. Part of the book discusses Dillingham adjusting to Hanks's rise after he shot to fame in the late Eighties with roles in films like Splash (1984), The Money Pit (1986), and Big (1988). E.A. specifically writes that her mother was a 'would-be actress who never recovered from her ex-husband's catastrophic fame.' In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, E.A. said that she thought the word 'catastrophic' was the best way to describe how Dillingham felt about her ex-husband's success. 'She felt that his stature in the world obliterated her and any chance she had at continuing her stage career,' she said. 'The uncomfortable truth, and there's a lot of them in this book, is she didn't really have a career, and her ex-husband becoming the Tom Hanks was more insult to injury than significant impediment.' She continued: ''Catastrophic' also because that brand of megawatt fame erases what actually matters in an artist and what set my dad apart in the first place: humanity and talent. But I chose that word, catastrophic, not her.' Hanks went on to re-marry Rita Wilson in 1988, and they welcomed two sons: Chet in 1990 and Truman in 1995. Despite her mother never receiving a formal diagnosis, E.A. assumed that her mother was bipolar with episodes of extreme paranoia and delusion. During a portion of her memoir, E.A. said her mother slowly started to become more neglectful, leading to a switch in the custody arrangement meaning she and Colin would only see their mother on weekends and during the summer. 'As the years went on, the backyard became so full of dog s*** that you couldn't walk around it, the house stank of smoke. The fridge was bare or full of expired food more often than not, and my mother spent more and more time in her big four-poster bed, poring over the Bible,' her book read. 'One night, her emotional violence became physical violence, and in the aftermath I moved to Los Angeles, right smack in the middle of the seventh grade.'
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘I've been hit with a £93k bill because my architect forgot a form'
Headlines are LEGAL OK Martin Gaine is a chartered town planner and chief executive of Just Planning. In the 1986 film The Money Pit, Tom Hanks and Shelley Long buy a house in such a state of disrepair that the stairs give way, the electrics catch fire and when they fill the bath it collapses through to the floor below. A British remake could tell the story of Ian Colvin and his wife, Corrine. When they doubled the size of their bungalow in Haslemere, in Surrey, adding a basement, a side extension and a loft conversion, almost everything that could go wrong, did. Not only were there problems with the plans produced by his agent – who, it turned out, had no formal architectural qualifications or professional indemnity insurance – the build went way over budget, and the basement flooded and had to be tanked after it was finished. These building disasters turned out to be the least of his worries. When the project was finished, the council served Colvin with a demand to pay a developers' tax of £78,000 which, with interest and penalties, now leaves him with an outstanding bill of £93,000 – and it couldn't have come at a worse time. 'I was rebuilding my life from scratch after a painful divorce back in 2014,' Colvin, 55, says. 'The renovations soaked up every penny we had, and we ended up taking on extra debt to finish the project. 'The interest is racking up and there is just no way I can afford to pay it.' The reason for Colvin's fine? A 'very simple' form. Building works which create more than 100 square metres of new floor space, or a new dwelling, trigger a requirement to pay a local charge called the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). It is a developers' charge and homeowners are exempt but, crucially, only if they formally claim their exemption before starting work. 'It is a very simple form and the council reminded my agent that he needed to complete it,' says Colvin, 'but he had his own problems at the time and just didn't do it. The moment I started works on the house, I became liable'. The liability is registered as a legal charge on Colvin's property, and such is the rigidity of the planning system it seems there's nothing to be done to appeal it. The local authority ombudsman has declined to take up the case, and his local MP, former chancellor Jeremy Hunt, has said that there is nothing he can do. 'I've pleaded and I've begged, but the council says they have no discretion. My solicitor has said a legal challenge would cost about £30,000, and I probably wouldn't win.' It is surely a flaw in the planning system that homeowners should be charged gargantuan amounts of money for a charge to fund local infrastructure that is not intended to apply to them, simply because of a minor administrative error. Does it truly matter that the correct form was not submitted before works started? Waverley Borough Council, which levied the charge, says: 'The Community Infrastructure Levy is a vital mechanism for funding local infrastructure', but that it is 'reviewing historic CIL demand notices to understand how homeowners have been impacted'. Councillor Liz Townsend, portfolio holder for planning and economic development, said: 'We will explore how we best support these residents while maintaining compliance with national regulations, and we will continue to consider options for improving how we communicate CIL liability and demand notices.' On a government level, a spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government agreed that homeowners building extensions 'are explicitly intended to be able to obtain exemption from a CIL charge', but confirmed that the exemption must be claimed before starting work. 'Councils are ultimately responsible for their own enforcement decisions,' the spokesman said, adding that 'the Government is committed to improving the existing system of developer contributions, including the process for obtaining exemptions'. For Colvin and his family, the impact of the CIL liability has been devastating. 'It is a massive dark cloud over both of us. It has been three years now with no real answer or progress. 'The only solution is to sell the house, hope the proceeds cover the CIL charge and pay off the mortgage, and accept that we will be left with nothing.' There are plenty of other ways the planning system can catch out unsuspecting homeowners. Andrius Lengvinas admits that he was a little naive about the ins and outs of the planning system when he started building his own home, a one-bedroom bungalow in place of a garage at the end of a cul-de-sac in Kingsbury, north-west London. As works were finishing, a planning enforcement officer from the London Borough of Brent arrived on site with a measuring tape, explaining that the neighbour over the back had made several complaints that the new house seemed to loom over her garden. It turned out that Lengvinas, 40, had built the house exactly as shown on the approved plans, but 75cm closer to the rear fence than it should have been. It was the right house, just in the wrong place. The council agreed with the neighbour that the new bungalow dominated the views from her house and garden, and served an enforcement notice demanding it be demolished. 'At first, I thought it was a joke,' Lengvinas says. 'They couldn't seriously be telling me to tear it down – we had just put the roof on! 'I thought perhaps they wanted to scare me and would come back with a fine or ask me just to take down a bit of the back of the building.' Ultimately, the house stayed where it was – but only after I appealed against the enforcement notice on Lengvinas's behalf in my capacity as a chartered town planner, and the Government's appeal inspector came to the common-sense view that 'to pull it down and start again, for the sake of 75cm, does not seem to me a sensible outcome'. For Lengvinas, it was a close shave that he's taken lessons from: 'I always check and double check – I think people are far too blasé about the risks. Even when you get planning permission, you need to be very careful you build it exactly how you are supposed to.' Surprisingly, the experience hasn't put him off – he has since sold the house and is currently planning his next project in Essex. But he remains critical of the planning system: 'I think things are even harder these days – it seems even more rigid than when I built the house in Brent a few years ago. It is very hard to keep up with all the rules.' Even the simplest mistakes can have serious consequences. Stephen Walker (not his real name) wanted to replace the cold, leaky conservatory at the back of his house with something more solid. He built his new kitchen extension in the right place and to the right size, but it seems he used the wrong bricks. Or so says his local council, which is adamant that they are the wrong shade of red. 'I have a neighbour on one side who complains about everything I do,' says Walker. 'He waited until the extension was finished before calling the council. Someone came out and had a look and I thought everything was fine, but then I got an email saying the colour of the bricks isn't close enough to the bricks on the main house. I thought, who cares?' Walker built the extension using his permitted development rights, which allow homeowners to carry out small projects without needing planning permission. The legislation limits the size and design of extensions, and includes a requirement that 'the materials used in any exterior work … must be of a similar appearance to those used in … the exterior of the existing dwelling house'. I visited Stephen to advise on his enforcement investigation and must admit that his bricks are an unusually bright shade of red. They don't really match the subdued hues of the bricks on the rest of the house. 'I just let the builder choose the bricks,' he says. 'He went off to the builders' yard one day and came back with crates of them. Who was I to judge they weren't the right colour?' Negotiations are ongoing with planning enforcement officers – the gears grind slowly in local authority planning departments – and they may yet be persuaded that further action is not necessary. Walker is also looking into treatments that could be applied to the bricks to soften the colour, and has asked the council whether they will allow him to render and paint the structure. The problem is, render and paint are also not materials found on the exterior of the original part of the house. If agreement isn't reached, he may have to replace the outer leaf of brickwork. 'The whole thing makes no sense to me whatsoever,' he says. 'I would have thought the council had better things to do.' Have you had an extension mishap? Let us know what went wrong at money@ Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
