I was about to buy my first house. It looked great at first glance (aside from there being a major
road behind it. I made an offer and it was accepted. It looked so good that I wasnt going to get an
engineer but many of my friends told me to get one for piece of mind, if not as a bargaining tool if
there was something wrong. I told my real estate agent (a friend of a friend of mine) and he told me
that the owners are not going to wait much longer to go to contract so, he said he knew one that
would come on short notice on a Sunday.

Sunday came and I was to meet the engineer at 1pm in front of the house. I got there at 1pm and
waited. After 15 minutes, I decided to go to the owner's door and she informed me that the engineer
got there half an hour ago (he came 15 minutes early). When I met him, he told me he was already in
the attic and there were no leaks and he checked around the outside of the house. He then proceded
to turn on all water faucets, turn on appliances, lights, etc. He looked at the boiler. After 30
minutes, we walked out. He told me outside the house that it was an 18 year old custom made house
that was built right. He said the only thing it needed were a couple of GFI outlets.

I got the report the next day (via email) and it was 16 pages. A good friend of mine, who knows a
lot about houses, read it and was surprised that the only major concern was the GFIs. He said the
house must have been in Near Mint condition according to the report. He then asked me about the roof
and if the guy got on a ladder and looked. I told him he came in a Corvette and had no ladder. That
started my friend off.

Discrepencies:
Engineer said there were two layer of roof. Owner said it was the original 18 year old roof.
Engineer said that the roof was expected to last 20 years but he feels it will last 10 more years
Engineer said that the boiler was expected to last 20 years but he feels it will last 10 more years
Engineer said there were no termites (unheard of for a home on Long Island)

My friend decided to go to the house on his own. He called me and told me to meet him there. The
owner saw us outside and invited us in. Here are his observations:

The roof as missing shingles and was buckling on the right side. There was a lot of potato chipping

The side of the house was buldging a bit and beams had to be replaced (engineer said the house did
not even begin to settle yet)

After looking in the attic, my friend said the rafter collapsed (under the buckling shingles on
roof)

The house was on a 1 ft foundation on one side of the house but the shingles were completely in the
dirt on the other side because of the way the land is pitched.

There were hair line cracks in 50% of the kitchen ceramic floor tiles.

There was a huge split in the corner of the livingroom wall (from floor to ceiling)


Anyway, my friend went nuts. He said I have to demand my money back based on the report I got. He
wants to know how the engineer could say there were 2 roofs when there was only one and how he could
miss all of the other things that were wrong. For $500, I should have received a better report.

Word got back to the owner of the engineer firm and the he called me back and told me he was going
there personally to look at the house with a ladder. I asked him if they usually use a ladder and he
said they do not. After he finished, he told me that the rafter needed to be jacked up and a few
other things. I feel this report is tainted at this point. He cannot change the original report
radically because it will prove that the first guy screwed me. As a result, I backed out of buying
the house.

My friend said I should call the engineer and demand the money back. He told me that I would have
bought that house based on their original report and would have been screwed. He also told me to ask
him if it is their normal practice to send an engineer down, then have the potential buyer's friend
have a visual look at the exterior and find more problems than the engineer, and then send a second
engineer down to do the job correctly? They did a ****ty job, end of story!

I need to find out who regulates engineers? I want to write to them to report this guy. In the
meantime, I have learned a ton about what to look for. I didnt know before and didnt think I had to
beause I thought the engineer should catch the problems. I also learned a lesson... never let your
real estate agent refer you to the engineer. There has to be a certain loyalty between them that
allows the engineer make the house look good enough to sell.

So, if anyone knows what governmental agency regulates engineers, I would appreciate it.

Tony