Home Inspection Nightmare

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Home Inspection Nightmare

CBS 13 - Sacramento,CA,

Kurtis Ming

Reporting

http://cbs13.com/seenon/local_story_156005520.html

An Orangevale woman thought she'd made all the right moves in

California's scary real estate market. But when her home began to

leak water, sprout mold, drain her bank account and her health, she

called Kurtis Ming.

Kim Snowden has put a lot more than flowers and landscaping into her

two-story town home.

" Thousands and thousands, probably a good $45,000, " she says.

But this was not supposed to be a fixer-upper.

" It's kind of like, a really bad nightmare, that we can't wake up

from, " says Snowden.

Everything seemed to be going right for Kim and roommate,

Purcell, when Kim bought a 2-bedroom home a year-and-a-half ago. It

was a place the two athletes could park their bikes, rackets and

boogie boards.

" I remember my realtor calling me and saying, oh, the inspection

report is just glowing, " says Kim.

Kim says it took only a couple of months for that glow to dim.

" The first problem arose in the garage. Had that bad leak, which the

former owner had supposedly fixed, " she says.

The trouble in the garage had been disclosed when Kim bought the

place, and there was talk of another leak over the kitchen, repaired

two-owners ago. But she says a lot more was never disclosed. A leak

in the living room floor when the neighbors' drip system ran too

long a couple of months later, Kim says she noticed a growing bulge

in the dining room ceiling. She poked it with her finger, and broke

right through. Water began draining through the hole.

" I felt around the rest of the ceiling, throughout the dining room

and living room. That's when I thought, if there's this much of a

moisture problem, there's gotta be mold, " she says.

A testing company found lots of black mold, concentrated between the

ceiling and upstairs floor. The tester told the roommates to move

out of the home immediately. Kim hired a company to clean up the

mold, and she hired her own home inspector. He found the overflow

drain to one upstairs bathtub had apparently never been connected,

so water just pooled in the ceiling, and one of the toilets leaked.

The drain from the air conditioning and heating system was a

bottleneck that filled with water instead of draining it. And about

that heating and air system - it was supposed to be new. Pictures

show the system was not new, only the compressor on the roof was.

The roommates moved back in, but Kim found herself with more than a

disclosure problem, she says she and have both been diagnosed

with fibromyalgia, and other illnesses.

" 's been unable to work for almost a year now, " she says, " I've

been working, but it's a struggle through every day. "

Kim Snowden tried to get her homeowners association to help, and she

hired a lawyer, but says that just cost money, and ended up leading

nowhere. In frustration, she contacted Kurtis.

Kurtis looked for the man who sold Kim the home, and found he's

apparently left the state. The inspection company that signed off on

the property is now combing its files, looking for signs of trouble

with that air conditioner and leak in the living room. In the

meantime, Kurtis has put Kim in touch with a lawyer who deals

specifically with her kinds of trouble, and an expert who deals with

defective construction and repairs.

Kim e-mailed Kurtis to say her financial situation is so bad now,

the people he recommended may not be able to help. She used a family

friend as her realtor. She could've hired her own home inspector,

but know this: home inspectors are not regulated. They don't need an

engineering background and they don't need to pass any sort of

tests.