William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC was recently contacted by a member of an HOA in Ventura County where that member had learned that his association’s Board of Directors were considering passing a special assessment in the range of 2 million dollars for repairs to balconies and stairs.

Information we got from the owner was that a large nationwide HOA reconstruction firm told the HOA that they had 13 emergency repairs and 300+ non emergency repairs to do and the budget was apx 2 million dollars for this work.

The resident also learned that this nationwide HOA reconstruction firm had waived the $41,000+/- Stage 1 inspection fee provided they were given the repair work. We believe that to be highly unethical and so does that owner. We provided a letter of opinion that the association could self finance the non emergency repairs over a period of several years, taking on a couple buildings at a time to make repairs.

We’re also seeing  companies now advertising “free inspections” and “20% off” specials. With all of these offers, there is always fine print, and fine print never benefits the consumer. If you’re going to buy into these offers, make sure your legal counsel is protecting your interests by reviewing their contract before you sign.

One thing these companies have in common is that they are larger firms with a lot of overhead and with the slowdown of inspection requests coming in they need to churn business. Due to the other services that we offer, we are staying busy with work that they don’t offer such as construction monitoring and building envelope inspections.

At William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC, we provide upfront honest bids on SB326 inspections. We strictly follow SB 326 requirements by guaranteeing that an engineer is physically present at the inspection and inspecting the structural elements. We have competitive prices that are straightforward without fine print in our contract. We have a waterproofing expert who writes the waterproofing report which is then appended to the engineers sealed and signed report.

Our strict ethical standards demand that we only inspect and report for the benefit of our clients, not ourselves. We believe that inspectors should not be bidding on repairs.

Reach out today for a discussion on how we can assist you with your balcony inspection requirements. Call us at 805-801-2380

Download our free inspection certificate and ask every inspection company you are considering hiring to sign it. This will rapidly separate the legitimate inspection companies to the top when the contractors who also inspect don’t want to sign it.