Fort McMurray Forum

An interesting little fact for you homeowners. When your home was inspected for building code violations all the contractor had to do was sign off in the inspection and fax it in. They never had to prove they fixed anything. What they try to tell you is that the initials on the inspection sticker (look on your fuse/breaker panel) means that the building has been approved.

Contact the Municipality for a copy of your inspections so you can look at what was written and check your house to see if the items were ever corrected. I do know that there were/are many homes in Eagle Ridge that never had their final inspection done.

Interesting, can you post some more details how to get the form from the municipality?

MacDaddy wrote: I do know that there were/are many homes in Eagle Ridge that never had their final inspection done.

How did you come to poses this knowledge?

I caught my builder doing this after I expressed concerns on some items. After I was assured this was how things were done in Fort McMurray I got copies of my inspections and found that my concerns were also written up in the inspections. That is all but the final inspection, which had never been done. These facts along with a threat of legal action got the items addressed by them (grudgingly). I have since them met others in the neighbourhood that have the same situation.

Since then I have had some discussions with Alberta Municipal Affairs abut the system that can allow this to happen. I have learned many fun facts such as

1)Did you know that the only negative outcome for a builder who pulls stunts like this they are vulnerable to lawsuits from the homeowner. There is no other consequences for them. So for the few times that a homeowner catches them and has the money to hire a lawyer is more than offset by the money they save screwing the people that don't catch it.

2)Alberta New Home Warranty will not address any violations of the Alberta Building Code.

3)You, as the home owner, will be held responsible for any of these violations. This means that if they are caught in a future code inspection (such as doing some renovations) or home inspection (during a real estate sale) you will have to fix them on your dime. Then if you have any money left over you can hire a lawyer to try to get your money from the builder (if they are still around).

After learning all this I completely understand how that mess at the Penhorwood condominium was allowed to happen. While I have met some great contractors who actually care about their work the system is set up so that some real scumbags can also set up shop.

I forgot about your question on more information. http://www.superiorsafetycodes.com/pdf/ ... ential.pdf Item 13 tells you to contact the municipality for your old permits. However, some of the other items address issues like missing inspections or false repair claims.

Thank you this is very informative. I'll invite my friends to read this over since they are looking at new houses.

While Penhorwood is an extreme case, there were smaller incidents like this in Edmonton where people in a condo had to pay 50k to fix building defects.

Happy to share. If they are going to go through the building process tell them to insist they get to see the house before any drywall goes up. They can say it is for taking photos of where wires and pipes are running through (which actually is handy later on. It will also be a chance to confirm there is insulation installed around the exterior doors and windows. Sadly this is a very common shortcut the builders take in this town.

While I agree Penhorwood is an extreme case you don't have to travel to Edmonton to find similar situations. I know of several buildings in town where the owners had to pay for fire separation work out of their own pockets. Actually, Penhorwood also has major fire separation problems on top of the foundation flaws.