Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

This is fantastic. But wow, the home inspector was really phoning it in that day!

Our inspector missed obvious asbestos in the basement — I would have preferred the model trains!

Our home inspector missed the front door failing to latch!

The finger curls. You get model trains carrying carloads of asbestos.

It's an omission so huge you could drive a train through it.

Good news, everyone! It'll be all legal again soon:

https://www.ishn.com/articles/114790-trump-administration-to...

Inspector wound't have had any reason to mention it. They care about structural issues.

The foundation is still clearly visible, they could do their job despite the railway. And they wouldn't have known that others didn't know it was there.

Unbelievable lol.

This is in Melbourne, where most homes are sold via auction (because of the limited supply)... lots of people are forgoing building inspections because of it. Wouldnt be surprised if he didnt do one.

Ours did up a full report with pictures. I also walked through with the guy. Seems like something they would mention, even offhand.

It would not be unreasonable for an inspector to assume something like the train layout was mentioned in the listing or otherwise known to the buyer.

Assuming HO scale.

Home inspectors (at least in Australia) are next to useless and expensive. The one I bought a report from never looked under the house or in the attic.

Why don’t get sued into usefulness when issues inevitably arise in properties they’ve inspected?

When you pay an expert and rely on their opinion, you have recourse

This was also my train of thought.

That’s not what the article you linked says.

I don’t think a surveyor would be bothered about home contents

My experience here in the UK, despite getting the highest "tier" of survey carried out on my (current) home when buying it, was that within the 74 page report they produced, there were at least a dozen occurrences of the surveyors recommending a "specialist".

They avoid any liability by saying, "we couldn't survey under the floor", we recommend getting in a specialist. "we can't assess the roof structure", we recommend getting a specialist.

By the time all was said and done, we were looking at tens of thousands of pounds in further "specialist" surveys, which nobody realistically is going to do only to decide after that you won't buy the house.

I can imagine once you're looking at houses priced in the millions it might make sense, but blowing the equivalent of your deposit just isn't tenable.

Looked a bit bigger than that...

It could be sold as an "as-is", intended for knockdown/ demolition and replacement, or removal. That's why the 20% minimum open space requirements for new homes.

My home inspection report was two pages of useful information (here’s where the water shutoff is, the breaker panel is here), a page with two actual real issues (garage door opener didn’t work, kitchen foundation was settling) and then ten to twenty pages of “we don’t look at shit” legalese.

They specifically disclaim being experts in damn near everything.

If you want a real inspection you hire two or three building contractors to do it. I’d go with a general, a roofer, and an electrician. If I cared.

In the US the quality has varied widely over the few houses I’ve purchased over the years. I’m also skeptical of their aligned interests. In the US most home purchases take place with a real estate agent involved. An inspector that adds friction to the process won’t get recommendations from agents.