Is there a way to find past home inspection records for a property?
I am purchasing a home and want to view previous home inspection records
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Well they are not public records so I think the best you could do would be to ask home inspection companies in the area if they have inspected the home you are interested in. They may sell you a copy of the report. Better yet, have the home inspected.
I would never buy a home without a home inspection report!
I almost got burned on a house, until I got the home inspection that showed that major repairs would be needed.
The only way this is going to happen is if you get them from previous potential buyers or actual owners of a property. Home inspections aren’t filed away for future use by anyone but the people who bought them originally. A listing agent may very well have a copy of a previous inspection on the property but has no obligation to share it with a potential buyer. A home inspection company also would not likely share (sell) an old report since an old report is not as reliable as a current report leaving open potential liability issues.
The only possible way would be to track down every previous owner and ask them personally. Good luck with that as property records only show the address of the property, not the previous owner’s forwarding address.
Those are not a matter of public record so there’s no central repository for them.
Previous home inspection records are not public record, and any previous inspector will probably charge you for a copy, if you can discover which firm inspected it.
Furthermore, previous inspections are of little value, since the home may have been improved since that time, or defects which were not previously there may have developed.
Hire a qualified inspector and have the property inspected in its current condition.
I know in the case of boats and marine issues the surveys and appraisals are the property of the party that requests it. SO the only way to view one is to find the person that paid for it. What that person does with it is up to them, therefore they can let you view it or even sell it to you and then it becomes your property.
Sorry as a home inspector I would not release any report to you unless you paid for them. They are not a part of public records. I don’t even give a copy to the seller, only my client gets a copy. If my client wants to give a copy then thats their choice. But no 3rd party has any claim or right to the information in the report. Hire a home inspector and get your own report.
If the county or city had building inspection records, you may be able to access those (if there are any), but those records are for code violations and since I don’t know what you are looking for, I don’t know if those would be helpful.
As the others said, it is unlikely you can view any previous home inspections unless the home owner chooses to share them with you.