Tag Archives: palm springs deck inspection

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

A Client Asks Us “There Are So Many Deck Inspection Companies, Aren’t They All The Same?”

The answer in short is no, all inspection companies are not the same. Here is an explanation on why inspection companies are not at all equal in experience, ethics and in following the balcony bill requirements.

The SB 326 balcony inspection bill failed to ban inspectors from owning construction companies and failed to ban inspectors who own waterproofing and construction companies from bidding on jobs they inspected, so unscrupulous individuals are popping up to take advantage of unsuspecting and unknowledgeable consumers. 

Without a doubt, during your Google search you are bound to come across  deck inspection companies advertising on the world wide web which are run by individuals who opened a deck inspection company to take unfair advantage of HOAs despite their contractors licenses having complaint disclosures listed on their license for such offenses such as failing to complete work for the price quoted in their contract, taking a deposit in excess of $1,000, hiring unlicensed sub contractors and departing from trade standards.

We personally know of one deck inspector/deck inspection company who is under active investigation by the Board of Engineers for practicing engineering without an engineering license. That investigation was opened in July 2025 and remains active today.

Since the balcony bills became law, many companies cropped up to perform balcony inspections. There were also many legacy companies that started doing deck inspections as well. The main difference between the two seems to be that the legacy consulting firms continued to provide just inspections and consulting, and the new firms were compromised of contractors who saw easy marks and offered “all in one” services in an effort to squeeze out any competition from bidding on their projects. This has led to serious issues where we’ve personally seen highly unethical companies preying on HOAs. We know of a number of HOAs that have been seriously financially damaged because of dubious unethical practices used by these firms.

Of course, there are also inspection firms like ourselves here at William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC who only seeks to assist you in meeting your legal obligations ethically and in strict compliance with the balcony bill. The problem lies in distinguishing companies like ourselves and unethical inspection firms owned by contractors that are preying on HOAs.

At William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC, we can help with you making that distinction.  We do this by guaranteeing in writing that our inspectors are properly licensed engineers who possess the required expertise and have extensive experience to meet your inspection needs.  You would be wise to stay away from so-called inspectors who have complaint disclosures against their contractors license. A good idea is to seek referrals or recommendations from others to help weed out these unethical morally corrupt unqualified inspectors.

HOAs can protect themselves from the unethical inspection companies in the California balcony inspection market by asking questions that are answered in writing such as:

1. Who is the architect or engineer of record that will be signing our report? Hint-This is important information to know and once you have this information you’ll want to look up the engineer or architects license to ensure they have no complaint disclosures against their license.

2. Will the architect or engineer of record or one of their direct employees who is also licensed as an engineer or architect be performing the inspection? Hint- if the answer is no, our recommendation is do not hire that firm. If the engineer or architect is not physically present, that means they are going to robo-sign your report.

3. Are you a licensed contractor or do you work for a licensed contractor that works on HOAs? Hint- if the answer is yes you need to decide if you want a contractor to do your inspection. If you decide to go ahead, you must ensure that they know your HOA will not entertain any bids for repairs from them and that you want the contract to commission a clause that they will not provide a bid for any repairs.

Other ways HOAs can protect themselves from unethical inspection companies is by refusing to allow companies to lower their price if they aren’t the most responsible bid; this is unethical, bids provided should be the companies best most competitive price. If a firm bids $10,000 and a competitor bids $9,500, and the firm that bid $10,000 now says we can beat that price by 20% it suggests they are unethical.

It’s unethical because it:
Undermines sealed bidding integrity.
Creates unfair competitive advantage.
Suggests bad-faith pricing.
Potentially violates procurement law.
Damages market trust.

This ad by an inspection company is at the least unethical, suggests bad faith pricing and undermines competitive sealed bid integrity.

William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC is committed to being honest, transparent and competitive with our HOA clients. We hope the information provided above helps our clients understand the risks of hiring the wrong inspection company.

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Watch Our Videos on TikTok, Insta & YouTube!

Did you know that we have a YouTube, Instagram and TikTok channel for you to keep up with us? Yep it’s true.

We post our latest videos first on TikTok. Follow us here  http://tiktok.com/@bill_leys_the_deckexpert

Then we generally post to YouTube a few days later. Follow us here https://youtube.com/@bill-leys-is-the-deck-expert?si=CkGOi5RC7ps4w_Z0

Soon after we post the videos to Instagram, follow us here https://www.instagram.com/wleyswaterproofingconsultants?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

We appreciate the outreach from so many people around the state who are appreciative of what we’re doing here at William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC!

If you don’t trust your balcony inspection report, if your balcony inspection company is pressuring you to take out special assessments, if your balcony inspection company also does repairs, you need to reach out to us today to help you defend against unethical immoral tactics designed to separate your HOA from its money. We perform second opinion inspections that can help an HOA determining if they got a good report or not.

Call today, I answer the phone personally! Bill Leys 805-801-2380

Personal service at affordable prices!
Deck Inspections, SB 326 Balcony Inspections, SB 721 Inspections

A Client Asked Us If We Are “Certified Deck Inspectors” Here’s Our Answer

Recently one of our clients who we have a proposal out with to perform their deck inspections under SB326 reached out with some follow-up questions. They wanted to know if we were going to use a boroscope camera and if we were “certified deck inspectors”. Our answer is no, we are not “certified”. Allow me to explain.

A quick search on Google showed us that there are several companies that advertise they are “certified deck inspectors”. Diving deeper, it seems all these unscrupulous inspection companies claiming they are certified inspectors are directly affiliated or owned by contractors. By claiming they are “certified inspectors” they seek to elevate their bonafides by saying they’re something that doesn’t exist in the SB326/SB721 inspection field. Continuing our search, the legitimate companies that we compete with make no such claim that they are certified. They make statements that they are architects or engineers, which is readily confirmed via the Board of Engineers and Board of Architects.

There are two non-profit national organizations that have deck inspection training courses and they then issue a certificate after the course is completed saying in essence that the person has successfully completed a training seminar. Inter-NACHI (International Association of Certified Home Inspectors) and NADRA (North America Deck & Railing Association) offer extensive courses for inspectors to take online. One other entity online purports to train people to be “certified” SB721/SB326 inspectors specifically related to California. None of these entities mentioned above can make an individual qualified to perform inspections under SB326 or SB721.

We explained to the client that the qualifications to do balcony inspections under SB326 is quite clear; an engineer (licensed as a civil, PE, or structural engineer) or a licensed architect are the only individuals qualified to do the inspection. We explained to our client that the companies advertising that they are “certified deck inspectors” are exaggerating at best and committing fraud ( in our opinion) at worst.

We further explained that these companies claiming to be “certified” only hold contractor’s licenses and that review of their personal and corporate held CSLB licenses showed that they have complaint disclosures against them by the contractor’s state license board.

Naughty boys in the inspection industry include:
One unscrupulous contractor has a long list of lawsuits (over 100!) against his company by unsatisfied clients, complaint disclosure on his license for multiple violations of contracting laws, including taking a deposit over $1,000, while another “inspector” has a complaint disclosure showing they hired non-licensed sub-contractors and failed to complete the job for the contract price, while yet another inspector/contractor was forced to disassociate from a licensed contractor for conspiring to defraud the CSLB!

Our client appreciated the information and has hired us to do their SB326 inspection for them as they didn’t appreciate one  particular braggart puffing themselves up while denigrating William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC.

Our client also appreciated our written guarantee that a structural engineer will personally perform the inspection, that we have no conflicts of interest and that we are humble and no-spin (their words) when it comes to approaching our solemn duty in performing inspections.

Reach out today for a conversation on how we can help you with our expertise, professionalism and integrity for your SB326 inspection needs. No nonsense, no inflated claims, just honest ethical practices to serve our industry and save lives.

Bill Leys on a balcony repair project in Alameda CA.
home inspections

A Recent Home Inspection Shows Why a Seller Provided Home Inspection Report is Essentially Worthless

The other home inspector missed this “little” issue

A recent inspection we performed for a prospective buyer of a condominium in San Luis Obispo demonstrates perfectly, why you as a buyer need to have your own inspections done at your own cost. This particular inspection found many issues that were glossed over as simply needing patching and painting rather than complete replacement of major components such as windows, doors, decks and subflooring under a shower.

The seller had a pre sale inspection done at their expense and provided that report to the prospective buyer. He had questions and doubts about the report and reached out to us after searching for a waterproofing and building consultant.

Our inspection found that many items the other inspector glossed over in his report as needing “patching and painting” or minor repairs were far from the real situation which was that all the doors and windows were past their useable lifespan and needed to be completely replaced. We found dry-rotted framing on decks, open and exposed framing on columns, dry-rot in the substrate below a shower floor which requires the substrate to be replaced due to fungus infestations.

Major issues that will require tens of thousands of dollars in repairs are now known issues that will need to be disclosed by the seller if the client who hired us doesn’t complete the purchase. This example illustrates perfectly why inspections don’t cost money, they save you money.

If the prospective buyer does move ahead with the purchase they can negotiate concessions, a lower price or credits to account for the costs necessary to fix the problems we found.

Take a look at the photos below to see what we found, and then give us a call at 805-801-2380 to get a quote on your building envelope inspection on the home or building you are considering purchasing.

When you hire William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC, you are hiring an ethical,  experienced company who puts our clients interests ahead of our own.
SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Bill Leys Explains Why Job Site Visits are Essential For Bidding on SB326 Inspections

While on a property in Orange county I made this short video on why we walk properties before we give an HOA a bid on their SB 326 inspection.

Watch our short video as I explain why I want to walk your HOA before bidding your SB 326 inspection.
SB 326 Balcony Inspections, Uncategorized

A Competitors Guarantee Gives Away Their Game

We compete against Dr Balcony around central and southern California. They are members of multiple CAI Chapters. Despte their low price offer, I know of at least 2x we won a job against them even though my company submitted a bid that was more than theirs.


Why? When I was able to give a presentation to a board of directors and explain how we operated, that we had a licensed structural engineer performing the inspections, that I did a supplemental waterproofing report that was attended to the engineers stamped and sealed report, that we inspected 100% of all the EEEs to ensure that nothing was overlooked, we were awarded the job. They saw my years of experience as a waterproofing contractor, that an engineer was personally on site doing the inspection, that our no conflicts of interest guarantee that we don’t bid on repairs, that we get competitive bids without obstructing the free market, that the 20% discount is a fraudulent attempt to subvert the market, where competitive bidding and a companies experience matter.

I have it on good authority from a client who had this company on site & when they saw who was inspecting the deck complained to their HOA, lo and behold an architect appeared and inspected their deck at that time. They did not know if the architect continued to inspect other decks or just theirs.

I am making inquiries to the Architectural Board & the Board of Engineers as to whether the engineer or architect has to actually be on site & perform the inspections or if they can allow an individual without any engineering or architectural qualifications to perform the inspection basically write the report & then they will put a cover letter on that says the report is accurate.

This offer of taking 20% off the lowest bid that the association received  is just a bad sales tactic because they want to do the repairs, & that 20% off will be easily added back into the cost of the repairs because who is keeping them honest once they get the work?

Let’s math. Let’s say my company bid your inspection, with a guaranteed structural engineer, with a no conflicts of interest guarantee in writing as well, at 20k. For sake of a comparison, let’s say Dr Balcony had bid 21k.

So they daty hey, we will beat their price by 20% so their new price is now 16k. So what they just admitted to is that the value of their work is actually only sixteen thousand instead of the twenty one thousand they originally quoted you.

The question that comes to my mind is are they saying that they could have bid lower but they bid higher with hopes of overcharging you?  Now that they know they overbid, suddenly they want to make it up to you? You weren’t born yesterday… And you realize that Dr Balcony has inherent conflicts of interest, and is attempting to limit your choices of contractors, you should realize that some companies are actively trying to scam you.

If a company says they can do it all in house without needing to go to outside contractors to get three bids then they are limiting your ability to receive the best bid for repairs, they are stifling market competition, and your HOA is likely to be greatly overcharged.

Let us explain to your HOA why an independent firm without conflicts of interest is your best choice when it comes to balcony inspections.

We will explain what non emergency repairs and emergency repairs are, and why some companies push non emergency repairs over to emergency status, to pressure you into signing with them immediately before you get a chance to look around and shop your options.

Reach out to me, Bill Leys directly at 805-801-2380 for a consultation on how we can help you.

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Contractors Who Pretend to be Deck Inspectors Agree To Stop Stealing from HOAs

Celebrate this!

All the contractors preying on HOAs by pretending to be Deck Inspectors have voluntarily agreed to stop offering repairs to HOAs they inspected.

They also agreed to stop using out of state architects and civil engineers to robo sign their reports that they wrote that benefit themselves.

Further more, they voluntarily agreed to have transparency, ethics and honesty in their dealings with their clients.

This of course is an April Fools day joke, unethical contractors who prey on HOAs and take advantage of them by exploiting the loophole CAI-CLAC  left in SB326 will continue to F over clients every chance they get!

Sign the petition demanding CLAC to insert language in the bill to ban inspectors from bidding on repairs to HOAs they inspect!
CAI-Orange County CAI BAYCEN CAI GRIE CAI-Greater Los Angeles Chapter  CAI BayCen

At William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC we guarantee in writing that we have no conflicts of interest!

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC Signs A Simi Valley HOA For a Stage 1 SB 326 Inspection

We are pleased to announce that we’ve just signed a contract with an HOA in Simi Valley for a Stage 1 balcony inspection.

The inspection will include 44 balconies and 32 stairs that are required to be inspected under the bill.

Citing our experience and having the best price of the 3 bidding firms, the HOA has placed it’s confidence in us by voting to hire us

See the difference when you hire William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC! Get in touch today!

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

An EEE Evaluation May Have Helped Stop a Stair Collapse

On Monday we were in Pasadena looking at an association for the purpose of counting how many decks stairs walkways they have so we could bid to perform a SB 326 inspection job. The property is in an older established area that has Magnesite decking in the stairs and decks.

One stairway caught my eye with the long large crack in the Magnesite rubbing down the stair stringer. This critical piece of framing behind the Magnesite has, in my opinion, been infiltrated with water, has swollen and caused the Magnesite to crack and is likely dry-rotted as well, creating a life safety concern should it fail with people in the stairs.

We alerted the Board of Directors and their HOA manager to have the stairs shored up until repairs can be made. We would be remiss if we did not.

An EEE evaluation is not an inspection of the decks and stairs, but it is important to do in person to see the actual site conditions… And who knows, maybe we’ll catch a potential life safety issue at your association while we’re at it.

This is why we inspect, to protect life/safety and preserve your Associations property. Feel free to reach out to us for your free proposal for an SB 326 Inspection.

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Shoreline Condominiums Retains William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC For Their SB 326 Inspections

We are pleased to announce that Shoreline Condominiums in Santa Barbara has selected William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC to perform their SB 326 balcony inspections.

Shoreline Condominiums has over 60 decks, multiple walkways and bridges for pedestrians and numerous stairs supported by wood framing that requires inspection under the bill.

Clients understand how important choosing the right inspection company is to perform these vital inspections and appreciate that I guarantee in writing that I have no conflicts of interest. I don’t own a waterproofing company or have any interest in any company’s products that I might specify to repair your decks.

Call me today to schedule a free EEE evaluation of your property. 805-801-2380. Ask for Bill,bI answer the phone every time and you’ll be in good hands.