Develop Relationships with Building Inspectors

A building inspection can be vital to getting any commercial project off the ground and to the safety of your building’s occupants, so it’s important to have a good relationship with your inspector. For starters, it’s important to understand what your inspector actually does so that you can understand what he or she can or cannot do for you.

Bob Pace, president of Commercial Real Estate Inspectors in Montrose, Calif., spends his time examining buildings, analyzing their condition and identifying any repairs that need to be made. “I look at all the different physical characteristics that are there. And there’s six of them that are really the most important — the electrical, the plumbing, the heating and air conditioning, the structure, moisture, and the site itself,” he says.

The most important part of the service he provides, Pace feels, is breaking down the results of his inspection so his clients can make informed decisions. “I could put all sorts of technical details out on virtually any of those systems that people wouldn’t understand what I was talking about,” he explains. “Probably the most valuable thing is communicating it in a way that they can understand and use, keeping an exceptionally technical subject in laymen’s terms.”

“Fundamentally, building inspectors are in charge of protecting the health and safety and welfare of the population anytime they’re inside a building. And honestly on the outside of a building, too,” says Joshua Huntington, a senior regional planning assistant with Los Angeles County. “They’re really the front line in trying to make sure people can be safe inside houses and inside their offices.”

The Benefits of a Good Relationship
“I think it’s beneficial to have a good relationship with a building inspector because they’re really the experts on things like houses and additions and what corners you can cut and what corners are safety risks,” he continues. “Maybe you can save some money by using thinner lumber in a wall that’s not load-bearing, but a load-bearing wall, they’re going to want to make sure you meet the requirements for that wall and the lumber and what have you.”

Huntington points out that a lot of building inspectors come from the skilled trades. “I knew building inspectors who were master plumbers, master carpenters and master masons,” he says. “I think often people who have been in the trades for decades and find it to be a little wearing on their bodies and also looking for a job that has benefits, they’ll switch over to becoming inspectors for the last 10, 20 years of their careers. That’s something I would see a lot. It’s almost like not only are they inspectors, but they’re also master craftsmen, so they would have really great advice as far as building and what’s a good idea.”

The Price of Having a Bad Relationship
Of course, the perils of not having a good relationship with your building inspector are obvious. “I think most building inspectors I’ve worked with are extremely professional and they would want to treat everyone equally as much as possible,” says Huntington. However, inspectors are only human, which means that if you have a good relationship with them, they will be more motivated to get your inspection done quickly. In some instances, Huntington says, he’s seen such acrimonious relationships between inspectors and landowners that the inspectors were actually scared to come out to the job site, which certainly doesn’t equate to a quick inspection. “I’ve seen cases of landowners coming after inspectors,” he recounts. “Then they’re not going to want to come out at all.”

So what’s the key to having a good relationship with your inspector? “Common courtesy is the number one way,” recommends Huntington. “Get to know them. Know their name. Call them by their name. Treat them professionally. Say hello.”

Pace likes clients who know what they’re doing. “I like somebody who has judgment and knows when something’s important and when something isn’t.”

Also, honor your agreement. “When it’s all said and done, the thing I hate the most is when they go, ‘Okay, if I give you cash, how much of a discount?’ We’ve already agreed, I don’t play that way,” says Pace. “I’ve also had a couple — exceptionally rare — that literally paid me less. They just went, ‘Okay, I know it was $790, but I’m going to pay you $650. You’ll take it.’”