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.

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.