"Furnace Has Had An Annual Service Contract"
The venting system almost always has issues. It seems to be one of the most overlooked parts of the home, until owners wonder why the home is not heating or cooling properly. Or worse if the mandated CO detector is going off.
I can tell you that when a home inspector sees a service sticker on an HVAC unit, and the service is up to date, that inspector will feel a little bit better about the system. Even if it is an older system, as on this house.
And, knowing that the system is old, the agent thought to feature the fact that the diligent homeowners had a regular service contract. Prominent in the list of features was listed, "Furnace has had an annual service contract." And, normally, that is great information.
The key word however is system. If a company is going to maintain a unit, they have to treat it as a system.
The "V" in HVAC stands for VENTILATION.
The exhaust gases have to vent out, and in this system they vent outside the house through the roof.
All of the exhaust tubing and the vent stack through the roof is original. It is corroded. It is rusty. It is holey.
AND IT IS DANGEROUS! THOSE HOLES ALLOW CARBON MONOXIDE OUT OF THE SYSTEM AND INTO THE HOME!
Now I am not an HVAC technician. But it seems to me that if you are hired to maintain someones HVAC system, you should maintain everything associated. That's the idea behind the word - system!
Well, I can tell you that it will be fixed now! Nobody should move into this house with the venting tubing in this condition. A total replacement is in the future. NOW IT'S NO LONGER MAINTENANCE.
This particular house had lots of electrical problems, technically speaking, which were repaired according to the buyer's list of walk through and other requested items. They sent me an email yesterday (with an attached receipt) and just the electrical problems came to nearly $2K. It seems this home inspection paid for itself...
My recommendation: even when a homeowner's diligence is advertised as a sales feature, it is always best to have a home inspection. You never know what an objective eye might see!
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC
Based in Bristow, serving all of Northern Virginia
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