February 11, 2016
What is the difference between a home inspection and an FHA appraisal of a property to be purchased with an FHA mortgage loan? The appraisal is required, but not as complete as a home inspection (which is optional but vital to being a fully informed borrower). The FHA appraisal only insures the home meets MINIMUM standards and state/local building code.
The confusion over FHA appraisals and home inspections is one reason why we sometimes get reader questions like the one that came in recently asking about a roof issue:
“I have a question regarding our we bought in August 2014. When we 1st bought the home we were told that the roofing was fixed and replaced 3 yrs before we bought it. Well now we have leaks and mold and had someone check our house out and the whole roof is bad and it was never replaced and we were told it was. What should we do?”
The first question to ask in cases like this is whether a home inspection was performed before purchase. The home inspection is an additional expense a borrower will pay as part of the home buying process, but it’s one that should never be overlooked. Without paying a professional to closely examine the property, the borrower will never be fully informed as to the state of the home.
We can’t speculate whether the borrower in this case paid for a home inspection or not, but the answer to the home inspection question in these cases is often no, a borrower did not pay for a home inspection and later discovered issues with the property that could have been discovered at inspection time.The direct answer to this reader question is that it may be necessary to seek the advice of legal counsel.
Borrowers who were mislead in the purchase process may or may not have recourse depending on the nature of the trouble and whether or not there is documentation available to present in court. We aren’t legal experts and cannot speculate–the only advice in cases like these we can offer is “consult a lawyer” preferably one who has experience in cases similar to the one the borrower needs or wants to bring.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It is designed especially for real estate websites; a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those sites. It is simple to spend a few seconds customizing the state, counties, and widget size for the tool; you can copy the code and paste it into your website with ease. Get yours today:
http://www.fha.com/fha_loan_limits_widget
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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