Residential compliance certificate?

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/city_may_want_homes_certified_before_sale37989774.html

What a fricken joke. The city cant even show that proper inspections were done on some older homes when they were built that would have made them "up to code". So now they want to charge even more money. Can you say "CASH GRAB"???

Can you say "caveat emptor"?

Yup. Tax Grab!! Nothing more...and ill thought-out, imo.

Looks like your link is dead Dean.

But, from the title...does this mean if I buy a home that's been certified...when my electrical has problems, or my plumbing goes, or my walls need painting...the government will do all that for me?

try this
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/city_may_want_homes_certified_before_sale37989774.html
they moived it to local

AGEsAces wrote:Looks like your link is dead Dean.

But, from the title...does this mean if I buy a home that's been certified...when my electrical has problems, or my plumbing goes, or my walls need painting...the government will do all that for me?

As it was the government that gaurenteed it I would assume so.

Flip side is.. there will be no such thing as buying houses that need massive home improvements and fixing those things and the selling it for profit any more. I guess those homes will just rot into the ground since the original owners wont be able to bring it up to code to sell it. Yup grand idea this one.

That's why in the US (and parts of Canada...though not in Manitoba) Title Insurance Companies were created.

Not for the renovation parts...but for the land survey information. You buy Title Insurance when you buy your property, and they guarantee that the surveys are correct, or else they compensate you for lost property or liens held against you through some error.

I think Katz has had some people crying to him that Mike Holmes won't answer their requests...so now he wants to put on some overalls and "save the people".

So, the City wants to get involved in survey certificates and buiding inspections? Maybe they should start with some of the rooming houses and rental properties in the inner city.

Deank wrote:

AGEsAces wrote:Looks like your link is dead Dean.

But, from the title...does this mean if I buy a home that's been certified...when my electrical has problems, or my plumbing goes, or my walls need painting...the government will do all that for me?

As it was the government that gaurenteed it I would assume so.

Flip side is.. there will be no such thing as buying houses that need massive home improvements and fixing those things and the selling it for profit any more. I guess those homes will just rot into the ground since the original owners wont be able to bring it up to code to sell it. Yup grand idea this one.

No...I'd argue that there'd still be an "as is" clause involved. To allow the renovation flippers...but that renovator would now have to prove compliance before he could sell....or else force the buyer to choose an "as is" home, or get the certification themselves.

What I find funny about all this, is YET AGAIN there are rules in place for this. When you build a NEW home, you have to get an "Occupancy Certificate" before you can move in or sell the home. Maybe they should just get that carried over to renovations or older home sales. Same inspection...same certificate.

Or how about they use the land transfer tax that already exists to pay for the inspector to come out and actually start using some of that money for something that actually has something to do with selling the house.
Now there is a freakin cash grab.

The stated reasons for this new TAX is this:

The chief aim is to protect would-be homebuyers from purchasing properties they later find to be seriously flawed, Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz said.

He goes on...

The city winds up with complaints from homeowners who purchased shoddily or improperly renovated properties or homes with decks, fences or other structures illegally built over neighbouring properties, the mayor added. But he could not say how many of these complaints the city receives every year.

Btw, I believe that any complaints one may have can be addressed through existing structures that are already in place.

Does anyone ever read the fine print in the Offer to Purchase and Agreement for Sale/ If you have concerns, make the purchase subject to receipt of a current Survey Certificate, or inspection by an engineer or whatever. I you're buying a car, do you just walk in and take the first one without checking it out. For God's sake folks, we're talking about the single biggest purchase anyone ever makes and we need the Shitty of Winnipeg to protect us, not our own instincts and knowlege. Somebody, please help me understand.

I have to say that this is the biggest load of B.S. to come along in a while.

Why am I, the home buyer being punished for the previous owners stupidity in not obtaining permits? I already have to fix his lousy and half-assed renovations anyway.

Yup, it's a tax grab.

And like Freeman said, you make the conditions of sale subject to a home inspection, and a survey certificate. If someone else wants to buy the house with out those conditions, let them at their own peril.

Jebus.

Trouble is, with those conditions on your offer, you will never get a house! At least it was like that 4 years ago when we were house hunting. Lots of people got taken in with the crazy market and overpaid for crappy houses .

lots of people overpaid for good houses too.

What makes it worse...is that this "certification" means nothing, unless someone can back it.

Even a Home Inspection or Engineer's Report means nothing if you read the fine print.

My wife and I bought our house 5 years ago without an inspection or report.
In the first week the plumbing in our bathroom started leaking and flooded the kitchen.
The electrical in the kitchen & bathrooms were not to code IN the wall, even though the circuits were hooked up correctly.
The dryer plug was run to a proper breaker, but improperly installed in the panel. Not something to notice with the naked eye...it had to be pulled out to see what was wrong.
Our basement flooded due to a sewer backup...so no back-flow valve was installed...something else you can't just "see".
From the water we got some mould in the walls, so I started tearing out the walls (which the previous owners had just put in months prior)...when pulling one section of wall off, the foundation wall fell in at my feet...about 8' long x 6' high x 1' deep...stone wall. From the framing of the drywall I had just removed...it was obvious they framed it to hold that stone back.
The lighting in the ceiling of the basement had 4 junction boxes...drywalled into the ceiling.
Our kitchen walls started cracking...we found out the foundation was collapsing underneath it, and the previous owners had covered the outside with stucco, and drywalled the entrance to that crawlspace from the inside of the basement.

Now...there were some other minor things...but NONE of these would have been seen by a Home Inspector OR an Engineer.

How do I know? Because to fix most of these I had to go get permits, engineer's reports, and Home Inspectors to come out and see what I had done. I explained what happened, and EVERY ONE OF THEM I was told an Inspector/Engineer would not have caught that during a standard inspection. And that they wouldn't be held liable for missing it anyway because of a clause at the bottom of the inspection reports indicating they can't catch everything.

So I'd ask again if the city is willing to go on the hook for guaranteeing a house is compliant.

If they are REALLY going to enforce it...they should require the seller to prove compliance...or be forced to sell "as is". Then an "as is" home would sell for less money...and a "compliant" home can demand a certain level of security.

"What makes it worse...is that this "certification" means nothing, unless someone can back it.
"

awesome... so not just 75% tax grab.. but 100% since they likely wont back their own word? awesome.

Thats like gaurenteeing a perp you wont shoot him if he comes out with his hands up.. and taZing him and killing him instead.

Your right AGEsAces, if you were to slap those kinds of conditions on sales in the last several years, you would most likely not get that particular house. Although, eventually you may...

The housing boom/bubble was a complete joke for putting people in that kind of siituation.

The city missed the boat on this one, if it's to be a tax grab, then it's more than 5 yaers too late. Now, your going to be penelizing the people who waited it out and didn't want to partake int he rediculouslness if at all possible.

We bought our house 4 years ago, and due to it being a fixer/upper, we were the only one bidding on it, so we were able to get away with adding thoes conditions. Plus the seller was in a bind, which helped our situation. Nevertheless, we were in the beginnings of the retardedness that followed, and had been turned away plenty of times by others who didn't have any conditions even though we were in the same ballpark. Our realtor even told us that he would not endorse our sale if we didn't have inspections as part of our conditions, that was his policy because he didn't want to see us or anyone else he helped buy a house get worked over.

whats an inspection mean really? Not a lot. Unless the inspector guarentees his inspection.

That's true, but being a young person, never owning a house before, I was able to have the inspector go over the house and let me know things that were in error, things i needed to take care of and to look for things that were a deal breaker....tell tale signs.

In the end, could I have done with out and saved myself a couple hundred? Sure...I was paying for more piece of mind I guess...but he did find some things that myself and my Dad missed when looking over the place. Plus, most people don't like you snooping in the attic etc. on your own before you buy the place...so the inspection allows you to open everything to have a look with out...what's the word....not having to feel like a jerk or a perv for looking around.

Some people will say it's a scam, and it's not needed. While others who have had problems wish they had gotten the inspection and at least had a heads up as to what they were getting themselves into (within reason of course)

My motto in this regard: Better to be a live chicken then a dead duck.

yeah but the inspectors themselves..... how do you know they know what they are doing?

I have a home inspectors manual. a few hundred pages long. I can not see a home inspector actually doing most of the stuff in there.

My past experience shows me that "the code" is a subjective interpretation by the "Inspector" at most, and does not mean the house is being built properly.

Issues such as walls being built to cover problems are now covered in the present practices btw.

I used word of mouth and recommendations from others for who I picked to inspect my home. Other then that, all you have to go on is the firms reputation and what they tell you about the "qualifications" of the home inspector.

Don't get me wrong, they aren't for everyone....if I were in the construction trade, I would probably know a lot more then I do about what to look for.

"Issues such as walls being built to cover problems are now covered in the present practices btw."
it still happens all the time

It's my understanding that the inspectors have been melded into a common pool. For example, for a electrical permit, you could get an inspector that doesn't know a lot about electrical, but is an expert at plumbing coming to take a look...and it's my experience that they usually have a quick look and are gone quicker then they arrived.

For my A/C install last year, I did all my own electrical work (it helps to have an electrician in the family) and so I was present for the inspection. The guy cam wearing beach clothes, with his kids in the car....didn't even go inside the house, checked the A/C unit outside and then said have a nice day, he was late getting to the beach!