ABC-7 Listens: Home inspections questioned

about the city’s home inspection process — prompted me to investigate: west el paso homeowner laura stewart said — improper grading in her backyard caused this damage to her pillars. 2.30 “because of the grading issues in this backyard, the water all drains toward the house.” 2.37 she said that also results in continuous standing water — every time her backyard floods. 2.21 they uncovered that we had complete dry rot on all our pillars. 2.25 stewart said she took her complaints to the city inspections office and was told: 9.00 “‘the can’t guarantee that a home is solid. and that all inspections have been passed. it’s not a guarantee. they are just doing a visual inspection.'” 9.21 we took her concerns to larry nichols, the director of planning and inspections for the city. 3.07 those inspections are recordized and we keep a record here, so we know if work passed inspection, or not. … 3.28 i don’t know if you would say that would be a guarantee but it certainly is followed up on and recordized. 3.38 another concern — the inspection process itself. larry nichols confirmed — many of the inspections to homes are conducted by a third-party. stewart said the third-party inspector told her it performs all the home inspections for the developer who built stewart’s home. 8.00 how biased can she be when she’s getting her bread and butter from a builder? 8.04 6.47 i would not characterize that arrangement as a collusion by any means. they have the correct training and credentials. and the city still issues the permit and we still do the final issuance of occupancy certificate. 7.09 the developer is offering stewart a solution to alleviate the flooding in her yard — and a fix to the pillars. stewart is decling the offer, which she feels is insufficient, and has asked for the builder to either buy back the home — or prepare for