Wise sellers have their property Move In Certified!
You will probably be selling your house with the “Voetstoots Clause” in the Offer to Purchase. But, if you think you are fully protected against any comebacks for latent defects you are wrong!
Under the law, you have a duty to disclose the defects on the property that you are aware of. Your estate agent may also point out defects that need to be corrected.
If you don’t disclose those defects you may be liable to pay for the correction of the defects after the property has been sold.
As a home seller, you should have your home “Move-in Certified”! Move-in certified homes sell better, faster and for higher prices!
Besides being a great marketing tool, the seller’s home inspection report is also the “Seller’s Disclosure”. This safeguards you against any later legal action that the buyer may want to bring against you for both latent and patent defects!
Do the wise thing, have your home inspected before you sell it!
Jurie Fourie – Owner of THE HOME DETECTIVE and Certified Home Inspector and Member of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI) and a home inspection expert with 45 years of experience in the building trade!
When you’re buying a home, you don’t want to skip the home inspection step. Home inspections are an important part of the home-buying process. An inspection by an InterNACHI-certified home inspector can prevent you from purchasing a home with serious issues such as mould, structural defects, faulty plumbing, and more.
Firstly, you should insert a contingency in the “Offer To Purchase” which states that the sale is dependent on a satisfactory home inspection. In addition, you should also agree to a “Contingency Period” which will give you time to have a home inspection done. Furthermore, this period should be between four to seven days depending on how soon you can get an appointment with a home inspector.
Based on the results of a home inspection, the contingency will then give you the right to cancel the sales agreement. In addition, you can walk away from the transaction without recourse if you are unsatisfied with the seller’s response to a request for an inspection and contingency.
You lose the right to have the home inspected and to negotiate over defects found in a home once the contingency period ends.
What is a home inspection?
As a home buyer, it is your right to have your future home inspected for potential faults and defects. Therefore, don’t skip this step!
Damaged boundary walls around your property can spoil the whole look and feel of your property. Furthermore, cracked and leaning walls can also pose a danger to passers-by should the wall fall over.
This was a wall that was butt jointed against the neighbour’s wall. The danger here is that when the wall falls over portions of the wall will be spread over the pavement and possibly into the road. If a pedestrian is close by serious injury could result!
This article explains the correct wayto repair boundary walls and install expansion joints!
Firstly, if your walls have ugly cracks and broken plasterwork and brickwork at the expansion joints do not plaster them up as shown in the photos below!
This expansion joint was chopped open and plastered up. The joint will crack at the joint again. This is a waste of time and money and will cause more problems than before!
Furthermore, the work done on these boundary walls will result in more cracking in the walls!
Many boundary walls and retaining walls may fail prematurely due to the lack of provision for movement. However, this is usually not a fault in the materials used, but usually a lack of proper design. Even when the design is correct, the construction of the boundary wall and expansion joints are often faulty.
What is an expansion joint?
It is a separation between two portions of the same structure. A butt joint in a boundary wall is not an expansion joint!
Expansion joints in boundary walls
When building a boundary wall, an expansion joint is a separation designed to relieve stress on building materials caused by movement induced by thermal expansion and contraction. They are therefore specifically provided in boundary walls to avoid cracks occurring in the wall.
Temperature changes and seasonal changes mostly cause the movement in the boundary walls. However, expansion joints also permit movement due to ground settlement, seismic events and expansive soils.
must provide a copy of the completed mandatory disclosure form to a prospective purchaser or lessee who intends to make an offer for the purchase or lease of a property.
The completed mandatory disclosure form signed by all relevant parties must be attached to any agreement for the sale or lease of property and forms an integral part of that agreement, but if such a disclosure form was not completed, signed or attached, the agreement must be interpreted as if no defects or deficiencies of the property were disclosed to the purchaser.
A property practitioner who fails to comply with subsection (1) may be held liable by any affected consumer.
Nothing in this section prevents the Authority from taking action against a property practitioner or imposing an appropriate sanction.
Nothing in this section prevents a consumer, for his or her own account, from undertaking a private property inspection to confirm the state of the property before finalising the transaction.
This is the protection this Bill offers to buyers (consumers) who buy properties from sellers.
Often what happens in a shower is that excess tile adhesive and grout are washed down the shower drain while the tiler is tiling the floor. As a result, some of this grout may be lodged somewhere in the drainage system causing a blockage.
The following may have happened:
Either the trap or drainage pipes were damaged during an attempt to unblock the drain.
Grout is lodged in the trap and drain pipes.
The stub stack vent valve may be below the level of the highest plumbing fixtures on the drainage system in the bathroom. As a result, the lowest fixture, such as the shower P-trap water seal may be syphoned out of the shower trap.
Of course, a combination of all three may occur as well. Unless the shower trap or drain pipes are damaged, you should be able to handle the cleanup yourself.
Mould in the P-trap
If your shower drain smells musty, you most likely have active mould growing underneath the drain cover. But, if your drain smells like rotten eggs or sewage, you’re either smelling bacteria from a clogged or dirty drain or sewer gases that have escaped from your drainage pipes.
As part of their metabolic process, active mould spores release a gas that has a distinct musty smell. In addition, gas can be dangerous. If inhaled, it can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness and fatigue. Continue reading “A Smelly Shower”
