PDV Inc.

My real estate agent, Laura Sandvik of Fitzgerald Real Estate, suggested Paul Viens for my home inspection. I was moving to Greenfield from Minneapolis and had no contacts of my own in the area so I took my agent’s advice.
There were 2 key problems:
Arbitration
Paul Viens’ contract requires anyone working with him to use arbitration for any disputes that arise. The New York Times (
) recently ran an investigative report on arbitration arguing that it effectively makes it impossible for the average person recourse in the event of a dispute. One cannot take a case to small claims after signing a contract agreeing to arbitration. My claim against Paul was $ 1,500. (see below) but to enter a claim with the arbitration body in his contract requires a non-​refundable fee of $ 800. On this basis alone, I recommend avoiding this inspector.
2) Sloppy work
Paul did not recognize code violations in the plumbing. Having done my homework on what to ask a home inspector to look at, I asked him to inspect the pipes. One code violation was the routing of basement water drained by a sump pump into the town sewer. Apparently basement water is typical in Greenfield. There was a sump pump (a device I wasn’t familiar with). Because the sump pump was not tested during the inspection, I found out after the sale that though the pump worked, it was trying to evacuate the water into a broken sewer pipe. To fix this unsanitary situation, route the sump pump outflow to the outside and to fix other plumbing code violations was a $ 1,500 job.
Paul did indicate that the house contained knob and tube but neither he nor the agent did anything to disabuse me of my understanding that it was only wired to an attic light. It is actually the wiring for the majority of lights and outlets ($ 5000 to fix).