City occupancy inspectors are indeed a great resource, especially for home buyers who forgo paying for a private home inspector. The reason for this article is to go over the differences in what a city inspector does and what a privately hired home inspector does, because there are many.

A response I hear occasionally after I call something out in my inspection report, from either the home seller or the seller’s real estate agent, is “The city inspector didn’t say anything about it (it must not be an issue)” or “The house passed the city occupancy inspection”. The ugly truth is that city occupancy inspections, and what the city occupancy inspector did or didn’t call out, does not matter to home inspectors. The city occupancy inspector does not look at near the amount of things that a private home inspector does, so naturally the private home inspector (me) is going to report on a lot more deficiencies in their report than the city occupancy inspector.

Dozens of homes change occupancy on a daily basis. That’s what keeps myself employed and dozens of other home inspectors employed in my area. There are a lot of us inspecting homes in the metro east on a daily basis and that is where the issue comes in.

Let’s create an example scenario: say that in the town of Bethalto there are 150 homes changing occupancy each month and there’s only one city occupancy inspector. This city occupancy inspector is a part time employee making $20 per house he/she inspects, which is about $300 less per house than what a privately hired home inspector like myself would make. The city inspector only works Monday-Friday so there are only around 20 work days in a given month for them. The city inspector then has to do 7-8 occupancy inspections per day average (but keep in mind there could be some days he/she isn’t doing any inspections), where as a privately hired home inspector is only doing one or two (three at the max for some, but I never do more than two) per day. Keep in mind the city inspector is only making $20 per house so he/she is not going to spend 3-4 hours in a house like a privately hired inspector would, he may only spend 20-30 minutes on it. The city doesn’t want this guy wasting too much time in a single home, that’s why they pay him so little to do an inspection and that’s also why the things the city inspector has to look at are very minimal compared to what a privately hired inspector (like myself) is looking at.

Here is a quick list of what the city inspector will likely look at while in the home for that 20-30 minute span. Depending on the city and the inspector they have, they may not even look at this much.

• Receptacles are GFCI protected where they should be: Exterior, Garage, Kitchen, Bathrooms, Laundry Area, Unfinished basement
• Smoke detectors and carbons monoxide detectors are present and working (City Occupancy inspectors are good in this area)
• Handrails and Guardrails are in place for stairs indoors and outdoors (Private home inspectors check for proper construction techniques as safety issues can arise if not properly built)
• Presence of gutters (only some municipalities look for this)
• Yard is clean and no waste or junk
• Foundation free of openings
• Exterior decks, porches, stairs in “good condition” (Private home inspectors check for proper construction techniques as safety issues can arise if not properly built)
• Paint, siding, windows etc in “good condition”
• No plumbing leaks or broken pipes (Private home inspectors run a lot more water in fixtures than occupancy inspectors just because we have more time to spend in the home)
• No open junction boxes or splices not in junction boxes
• Garage to home fire separation (walls, door etc. City Occupancy inspectors are usually pretty good in this area)
• Fuel Furnace and water heater have proper clearance from combustibles

As you can see city occupancy inspectors are really just looking for blatant safety issues and major deficiencies in select areas and this is all done in a 20-30 minute time span so the likelihood of them missing something is quite high. Also note that in most towns the position of city occupancy inspector is a part time job, unlike most private home inspectors, so the occupancy inspector may not be up to date on the latest code or safety issues or may just not have enough time to do so.

This is not a article to hate or rag on city occupancy inspectors, most of them do a good job in the small amount of time they have to do it. But, like any profession, there are city inspectors that should not be inspecting homes simply because they are not qualified enough. That being said it would make more sense to take a private home inspectors’ word for it over a city occupancy inspector for the reasons listed above. The private home inspector has more qualifications, spends more time at the home, has more liability on the line, is required to inspect more items and has a better chance of finding defects based on the significant more time the private home inspector spends in the home.

In ending my suggestion to all reading this would be to do your diligence and research on any issues you come across that make you question the home inspector. The home inspector is not there to make life miserable for everyone or to kill deals. He is merely there to do a job and that job is to find defects and report them using the standards of practice.