Valuations reduce voetstoets risks

A home with cracked foundations, collapsing roofs, bad damp problems; these are just some of the true horror stories from the book of property buying and building as uncovered by a South African home inspection agency. With the voetstoets clause under current scrutiny, professional home inspections before selling are crucial.

"A home is the largest investment most people will ever make - it makes sense to find out as much as you can about the house you are interested in before you buy," says CEO of Inspect-A-Home Eric Bell. "It's a fact that houses are sold every day with a variety of undetected defects resulting in high costs of both repair & despair."

Typically a South African clause, "voetstoets" however covers any latent defects and is the origin of much buyer's remorse. Home inspections prior to purchase can thus save buyers many thousands of rand in unexpected repair bills or invalidated insurance claims.

"This is just not something you can do on your own," says Eric Bell. "A report which shows structural or any kind of damage up-front allows the buyer to negotiate a better purchase price as he or she will ultimately have to pay for the repairs."

The same would apply to both existing and newly built homes. When building a new home, Inspect-A-Home assists clients and architects by monitoring each stage of the build, from trenches to completed structure in accordance with best building practices. Or the company will simply provide a professional snag list for the builder on the client's behalf before handover.

In fact, Inspect-A-Home is discovering that many developers are now embracing the service to ensure quality control on their building sites. "It's no secret that virtually every developer has nightmares in trying to obtain decent quality finishes on the homes that they are selling," says Eric Bell.

By the same token, an inspection service is also beneficial to the seller (and by extension the estate agent) in that addressing any potential problems before listing and receiving an independent, professional stamp of approval will make for a faster, smoother sale of a home.

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