Your nephew has just received his driver’s license. Confident, he asks you to lend him your new $ 50 000 sports car for the weekend. Of course, you hesitate to give him the keys to your shiny new toy. Why? Simply because your nephew lacks the skills of a more experienced driver. So why are so many people so quick to trust anybody to perform the inspection of a home worth over $ 250,000? Read our article and find out how to unearth the right professionals when buying a house or condo.

So your nephew has just passed his driving test, has in his possession his driving permit and all the required insurances. Everything is in order and he can therefore legally find himself behind the wheel of a car on Québec roads. Does that make him a good driver? There’s no way of telling yet. The more he’ll drive over the upcoming months and years and the more experience he’ll gain. After a while, we’ll be able to check his driving record – its accidents, fines and demerit points – and form an opinion on his competence as a driver.

The situation is quite similar when it comes to home inspectors. A pre-purchase or pre-sale inspector is usually hired by any person who’ve just submitted an offer for the purchase of a building, house or condo, and who now wants to know better its quality before buying. The vast majority of these inspectors is well-trained, has the required errors and omissions insurance and his member in an inspection association or another. So far no one stands out and all those inspectors find themselves at a level equivalent to that of your nephew. They can legally conduct home inspection. But being insured does not guarantee their competence nor experience any more than getting a driving license makes a good driver out of your nephew. This has often been portrayed repeatedly in TV programs and public interest articles in newspapers and magazines which have questioned the quality of the work performed by certain pre-purchase inspectors (see these French articles in La Facture and La Presse).

These articles prove one utmost important thing: that experience is nothing without strict quality-control process. To keep with the example of your nephew, imagine now he’s been driving for over thirty years then, overnight, we take all the police officers and traffic controller off the province roads. It’s safe to bet he’ll soon forget a few safety tips and gain a few more bad driving habits: a little excess of speeding here, a stop too-quickly done there. It’s the control, this frame or borders that makes us all better drivers.

Now let’s come back in the present. Imagine your nephew with his brand-new driving permit. Imagine he’s permanently accompanied by a driving school instructor. You would surely more easily give him the keys to your car. Better yet, replace the instructor by a police officer who ensures that the young driver will make no wrongdoing. You suddenly find yourself serene while watching your nephew driving away behind the wheel of your brand new convertible.

At Legault-Dubois, we understand this principle of quality. That’s why we have a complete squad police officers whose sole responsibility is to ensure the quality control of all our pre-purchase and pre-sale home inspectors, even the most experienced of them. In this way, you are guaranteed to get the most accurate picture possible of the house you plan to buy. This way, you benefit from our experience and avoid many future complications. Never forget that any legal procedures, even if everything is settled in your favor, can cause many inconveniences. See our page dedicated to our pre-purchase inspection service to understand the Legault-Dubois difference.

Maybe you’re not planning on buying a house yourself, but chances are you know someone who’s planning to. Give them a great service and have him read this article so he’ll make an informed choice when time comes for him to choose a pre-purchase home inspector.