LJH Inspections

We found LJH Inspections from Angie’s List. Les is the worst home inspector I have ever worked with. I felt disrespected and treated like an idiot when I asked questions about the house during the walk thru. It was like pulling teeth to get him to do his job. We had the house from 10-1 for inspection. He arrived at 10 and spent 10-10:30 walking thru the house with the home owners. We arrived at 10:40 to pay another contractor who told us the home owners left 10 minutes before our arrival. We entered the house to look at shelving in the garage. He came down from the upstairs bedrooms within 10 minutes and had my husband sign his contract and start the walk through. The house is 4300 sq ft and he spent an hour inspecting it???! He told us the home owners saved him so much time pointing out the problems. Our agent said he is not supposed to walk thru the house with the home owners especially since we paid for the inspection! Les showed severe incompetence for a licensed home Inspector. He did not know where the gas meter was located. He didn’t inspect various things until I asked him about it. I will share those details. He said he couldn’t find the gas meter and the home owner didn’t know were it was. I asked him why we would need to know where it was located. He said in case of an emergency you need to shut it off. How does a home inspector not know where to find the gas meter??? My husband went outside and found it within 5 minutes. It was on the right side of the house behind a bush. You can clearly see the meter through the branches of the bush. I highly doubt the home owners who lived there for 21 years didn’t know where the gas meter was located! In the kitchen, Les didn’t test the faucet on the island until I asked questions about it. I noticed the same water pitcher sitting inside the sink as when we toured the house. I asked him how the water flowed and drained. The sink was bone dry. He removed the pitcher from the sink and turned the faucet on, we saw the water fill and pool. It gurgled and bubbled when the strainer was in place. This sink can’t be used with the strainer in place. If I didn’t notice the pitcher blocking the sink, Les would not have tested the island sink. Also, I noticed a large 8x2, yellow/ brown stain in the ceiling above the refrigerator. He told us to ask the home owners about. My husband took a picture of it. He didn’t investigate to see what room was above. In master bathroom, Les told me to ask the home owner if the smooth button next to the faucet on the jetted tub ran the pump. What???!!! He’s asking me to ask them! I said “our tub spits out black stuff, does this spit out black stuff”? He said he didn’t know because he didn’t want to waste water filling the huge tub. This is his job!!! I said could you please run it because I want to know if there is mold in the tubing. He ran it and he pushed the button. We discovered together that the button runs the jet! In addition, he didn’t know where the access panel for the tub was located. He said it may be one of the panels on the tub. In the basement, I asked if the vents in the bedrooms work. Les said, he didn’t know because the heat isn’t running but if you see vents, they work. I told him in our current home, the inspector missed 2 non functioning vents. He went upstairs to turn on the furnace. My husband got on a chair to open the vents and felt for the heat. The vent in the bedroom on the left didn’t have air flow. If I didn’t ask about the vents, we would not know the vent wasn’t working. A basement bedroom without heat gets too cold in the winter. I said to Les, we can’t use this as a bedroom. He said likes cold bedrooms. In the family room, there is a gas fireplace. I asked if there is an inspection for the fireplace. He said if it doesn’t work, you would smell gas. He turned it on for 5 minutes tops and said it works. I told him I wanted to leave it on while we walked around the house and come back. We came back after about 30 minutes. There is a definite smell in the room that took about a few minutes to dissipate. I would not want my children in that room inhaling those fumes. Now that I think about it, he didn’t test the fireplace in the basement. I forgot to ask because we were testing the heat vents in the basement bedrooms. In the furnace room, my husband pointed out a dead mouse still in the trap. Les said he didn’t see it. The trap was under a kitchen chair next to the furnace. My husband discovered mice droppings in the attic. He went up there to see if we could use that space for storage. There were mice droppings near the opening for the attic stairs. My husband noticed that Les was surprised when it was mentioned. Les said he took some good pictures up there. How did he miss mice droppings??? Outside, there were 2 dryer vents but the house had 1 dryer. Les told us to ask the home owners about it. My husband took a picture of the vent. There was another vent coming out the back of the house, he had no idea and told us to ask the owners. My husband took a picture of this vent too. The egress windows had a plastic cover on top. I asked how much weight/ snow it could take. He didn’t know, he said it depends on the manufacturer. There was a lot of wood piled under the deck next to the house. I asked if that should be removed. He looked at me like he didn’t know why I would bring this up. I had to explain that I was concerned about termites and moisture. The back yard also is a large wooded lot. He said there are no termites in Minnesota. I googled and found there are no termites from Bemidji and northward. Termites are found south from Duluth to Minneapolis. Why do I have to go and google to see if there are termites? I asked how much life was left in the driveway as there are cracks. He said it depends, it could last 5 years, it could last 50 years. I learned that there is a retaining wall on the left side of the house from the tree guy. Les never brought up the retaining wall during our walk through. He didn’t test the outside outlets. Only after I asked about outlet by the front steps did he take out his tester and plug it. He didn’t know what the light switches by the front door turned on. We helped him with that. We helped him test the intercom. I understand you need 2 people for it but if I didn’t bring it up, he would have missed it. The intercom by the front door does not work. In the backyard, he didn’t test the outside outlets on the deck. We never even went on the deck when we did the walk around with him. We don’t know how sturdy or if there are soft spots on the deck. We have no idea on the life of the deck. Les is either incompetent or an idiot. Disappointed doesn’t come close to how I feel about hiring him to do our home inspection. It was a complete waste of $395! I called him the day after our inspection and told him not to bother writing up the report. He asked why. I told him it was the worst home inspection I have ever experienced. I felt it was like pulling teeth to get my questions answered. I have never been treated so poorly. In addition, my husband and I and the home owners should not have been active participants in the home inspection. We were doing doing his job for him.

Went well. Great job

Quick Response Reasonable Price Great Inspection

Excellent. This is a first rate company with knowledgeable easy to work with people.

It was great, Les was professional and made things very easy to understand. Feeling a lot more confident on my purchase after going through this inspection process.

Everything went smoothly. I had the pleasure to work with Les from LHJ Inspections, LLC. Very professional, thorough, and fair! He was very detail-oriented and spotted even things that could usually go unseen. If you are looking at having your house inspected, this is the company that I would choose!

Les was very thorough, helpful, and kind. He answered all my questions, and was very nice. I would highly recommend his company!

Les is very kind and insightful!

He was very thorough, and patient in explaining all issues (big or small) that he encountered. Very detailed, and even walked me through what materials I would need in fixing smaller diy issues myself. Highly recommended!

I would recommend Les to anyone he was very detailed and walked us through every step of the inspection.

I'm very satisfied with the home inspection carried out by LJH Inspections. The actual inspection was incredibly thorough and the report at the end provided a detailed summary and evaluation of every nook and cranny of the property. Highly recommended!

Did a good job and was thorough. Walked us through our new home and explained where everything was and how it all worked.

LJH gave me confidence when buying our home. They also provided a very good guide for us and the happy seller to use on our final agreement. I recommend!

Les was very professional and thorough and walked my clients and myself through the results and explained all of his findings. I will definitely use his service again in the future.

The home inspection went well. I was on a super tight deadline and Les was kind enough to be flexible in his schedule and fit my client in after hours. He did a nice job talking through his findings and we got the inspection report back within 24 hours.

Good, honest guy with lots of experience.

Excellent, very thorough and saved us future headaches.