I had an interesting situation the other day. I was asked to do a "rodent" inspection. I have never before, specifically, done an inspection for, in this case, Mr Rat. However there is a first time for everything.

The interesting thing is why I was asked to do this. A refinance is taking place. An appraiser came in and looked in the crawl space and he saw some torn insulation on a heating duct.

As inspectors know, appraisers too I guess, this does have the look of chewing vermin. So far it seems like we were dealing with a pretty much on top of it appraiser. Maybe we were.

But when the bank ordered this "rodent" inspection, I went out to the home. First I found the crawl space with the torn insulation. Sure enough, there were signs of rats. But then we get to the more interesting part, at least in my book. Walking around the house I found another very visible crawl space door. It was rotted away. It had a hole in it the size of a saucer.

When I pulled the cover off, thinking I would go in there too, I discovered that it was the most water I have ever seen in a crawl space in my life. There were polywogs or bugs or something swimming in the water. The water was 6" deep.

I put my camera down there and, obviously the water was not merely at the entry.

So my question is this: Did the appraiser, since it was inaccessible, just exclude that wet crawl space and not bother to call for a further inspection? Or did he report the water and the bank ignored that information, not knowing that water in a crawl space is bad? It is strange either way because long term damage from that lake will probably far exceed damage from rats. Maybe the rats will drown.

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections