Amerispec Calgary

I had purchased my first home in January of 2015 and I had the displeasure of having Barry L. from AmeriSpec perform my home inspection. The overall inspection felt very rushed, Barry reluctantly answered any of my questions and he ended up neglecting a handful of items that would eventually cost me approximately $21,400.00 in repairs.

These are the following items that were neglected during the home inspection:

1) Rushed roof inspection via binoculars - Barry had arrived to the property approximately thirty minutes before the agreed appointment time and he had allegedly inspected 2 angles of the roof prior to my arrival. He assured me that the roof was in good shape and that I should expect to replace the roof in approximately eight years. After living in the property for less than six months, I started finding medium to large pieces of shingles on my lawn. This was very concerning to me and I had contacted several contractors to inspect and perform various repairs to the roof. Unfortunately with the heavy rain fall during the Summer of 2016, the health of my roof further deteriorated and I decided to replace it. Barry had neglected to view all sides of the roof and or even climb up onto the roof to inspect the shingles. After reviewing detailed pictures and video footage of my roof from another contractor, I was informed that the South facing section of my roof was missing numerous sections and that there is inadequate venting causing the shingles to premature fail. This information from Barry would have been very helpful when negotiating the price of the home; however, due his lack of experience or motivation to perform his duties as a home inspector, this has cost me approximately $17,000.00. As a side note, I choose to go with a metal roof instead of asphalt shingles.

2) Cracked kitchen windows and water leakage via the window frame - Barry didn't even open the blinds to the kitchen windows and at the end of the inspection, I pointed out to him that there were two cracked windows. Barry complimented me on having good eyes and he quickly noted it in his report. The cracked windows were not an immediate concern for me; however, there was a west facing kitchen window that had obvious signs of water damage along the bottom of the window frame. During the Spring and Summer months of 2015, Calgary experienced heavy rain and the top of the frame window started to leak water. The contractor that came out to repair the issue had identified obvious signs of water damage along the bottom of the window frame and he was unimpressed that Barry was unable to identify or investigate the possibility of a leaking window during the home inspection. This information from Barry would have been very helpful when negotiating the price of the home; however, due his lack of experience or motivation to perform his duties as a home inspector, this has cost me approximately $2,000.00.

3) Not thoroughly testing the basement bathroom - As usual, Barry rushed through the basement bathroom inspection and he failed to identify another costly expense that was related to a clogged sewage drain. Barry had run the bathroom shower and sink for less than thirty seconds each and if he had done so for a longer period of time, we both would have discovered that the sewage drain was clogged. This was an immediate problem for me the moment I moved into the home because every time I turned on the water, the basement shower stall and toilet would backup. This information from Barry would have been very helpful when negotiating the price of the home; however, due his lack of experience or motivation to perform his duties as a home inspector, this has cost me approximately $2,400.00.

I had attempted to reach out to Barry and AmeriSpec in regards to the leaking window; however, the receptionist who received my call was unconvinced that it was their problem and she reluctantly forwarded a message to Barry who was on vacation at the time. Barry eventually responded to my message via an email as he didn't have the courtesy to speak to me over the phone. Barry's response was less than sincere and he deflected all of my concerns to a professional contractor that specialized in window repair because he had scanned the interior and exterior wall with his infrared camera; although, I did not see him scan the exterior walls during the home inspection. In regards to the clogged sewage drain and roofing issues drain, I refrained from contacting AmeriSpec again because it was obvious to me that they didn't care about my earlier problems. I also left a Google Review for the company last year and I did not receive a response from the company. If you're in need of a home inspection, I would highly suggest you look for a better qualified company.