15 of our 21 inspection types apply to this property, and each one names the fact about the house that put it on the list. The part nobody else answers is the second half: an inspection you cannot get a report for before your condition expires is money spent on a document you cannot act on.
212 Ellis Avenue, St. Catharines, ON
Condo Townhouse, about New in St. Catharines
A five day inspection condition, which is what most GTA offers carry, does not cover 14 days. Enter your real deadline below and the page will tell you which of these can still land in time and what to do about the ones that cannot.
Every recommendation below comes from one of these. Nothing is inferred from a blank field: where the listing is silent we say so, and the inspections that depend on it are held at recommended rather than required and left unticked.
These are questions for the listing agent, and the answers are worth having before you spend anything. A single line on a data sheet can move an inspection from optional to required.
The date in your offer. Every book-by date below is worked backwards from it.
Would add $225 to $425 on your 2 selected, at 25%, for a booking in 48 to 72 hours.
2 inspections, ticked for you
These follow from what the listing record says about this property, not from a default list. Each one names the fact that put it here.
$500 to $900 typical range
What it finds. It finds the ordinary expensive things: a furnace at the end of its life ($6,000 to $12,000), active roof leaks, a wet basement, failed window seals. It is also visual and non-invasive by contract, so read its limitations section before assuming what it covered.
2.5 to 4 hours on site, so access has to be arranged with the listing agent rather than squeezed into a showing.
$400 to $800 typical range
What it finds. A condo with an underfunded reserve raises fees or levies a special assessment, and assessments of $15,000 to $60,000 per unit are routine after a garage or window failure. The corporation has ten days to produce the certificate, which is most of a typical condition period before your lawyer has read a page of it.
Skip it when: Freehold with no common elements and no POTL fee.
11 inspections
$600 to $1,200 typical range
What it finds. A failed bed is $18,000 to $45,000 in the GTA once engineering, permits and landscaping are counted, and it is invisible from the surface in dry weather. The general inspection excludes it explicitly.
2 to 4 hours on site, so access has to be arranged with the listing agent rather than squeezed into a showing.
$450 to $950 typical range
What it finds. A well that yields under 3 gallons a minute cannot supply a family, and drilling deeper or a new well runs $15,000 to $30,000. Lenders and insurers frequently require a clean potability certificate before funding, which puts the lab on your closing critical path.
2 to 4 hours on site, so access has to be arranged with the listing agent rather than squeezed into a showing.
$250 to $450 typical range
What it finds. A collapsed lateral under a finished basement or a mature front garden is $8,000 to $25,000 and is not visible in any other inspection. Mature-tree neighbourhoods with clay pipe are where it turns up.
1 to 2 hours on site, so access has to be arranged with the listing agent rather than squeezed into a showing.
$300 to $800 typical range
What it finds. Most Ontario insurers will not bind a policy over active knob and tube without an ESA certificate, and no policy means no mortgage funding. A full rewire on a two-storey century home is $12,000 to $30,000. This is the inspection that decides whether you can close, not only what it will cost.
$300 to $700 typical range
What it finds. A build year is a reason to look rather than a finding. This catalogue asks for the check on houses built before 1980, which is a threshold this repository chose and has not sourced to any installation record. What an insurer will require over aluminum branch wiring, and what pigtailing or a rewire costs on this house, are answers from your insurer and a licensed electrician. Getting them after you have waived your conditions means paying for whatever they say yourself.
$200 to $500 typical range
What it finds. KITEC was installed from 1995 to 2007, fails without warning, and was the subject of a class action whose settlement fund is exhausted. Replacement is $6,000 to $15,000 in a condo and more in a house, and some insurers decline the risk outright.
$300 to $700 typical range
What it finds. Asphalt replacement on a large GTA house is $18,000 to $45,000, cedar or slate several times that, and a flat membrane at end of life leaks into finished space. Insurers now decline or surcharge roofs over 15 to 20 years, so roof age is an insurability question and not only a maintenance one.
$200 to $400 typical range
What it finds. A cracked heat exchanger condemns a furnace on the spot, and a full replacement with ductwork changes is $8,000 to $18,000. On a house with multiple zones or geothermal it is several times that, and a general inspector will not open the cabinet.
$800 to $2,500 typical range
What it finds. It converts a home inspector's 'recommend further evaluation' into a stamped opinion with a repair scope and a number, which is the only version a seller will negotiate against and the only version a lender will accept.
$500 to $1,500 typical range
What it finds. Confirmed asbestos does not stop you living there, but it makes every future renovation an abatement project. Removing vermiculite from an attic is $10,000 to $30,000 and a kitchen gut with asbestos tile adds five figures to a quote you have not asked for yet.
$1,000 to $2,500 typical range
What it finds. On acreage and older lots the fence is not the boundary. A garage built over a lot line, a shared driveway with no registered easement or a neighbour's pool inside your setback are title problems that title insurance may cover and may not, and they are cheaper to find before closing than to litigate after.
2 inspections
Worth the money on some purchases and not on others. The reason is on each card, so the call is yours rather than ours.
$150 to $500 typical range
What it finds. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in Canada and parts of the GTA and Kawarthas read above the guideline. Mitigation is a sub-slab depressurisation system at $2,500 to $4,500, which is cheap; the problem is that a defensible test takes 91 days and no condition period is that long.
$200 to $600 typical range
What it finds. Toronto has designated termite areas, notably in the east end and parts of Etobicoke. Structural termite damage plus a treatment programme is $5,000 to $20,000 and the city will not treat your property for you.
2 selected, $900 to $1,700
Market ranges for the GTA, not quotes. The inspector gives you the price.
Pool and spa inspection
$300 to $700, 3 to 7 days to book
Shell and coping, liner or plaster, pump, filter, heater, plumbing pressure test, automation, and the fence and gate self-latching required by the municipality.
Oil tank and soil assessment
$800 to $3,000, 4 to 12 days to book
Tank age, TSSA compliance and registration, and soil sampling around and beneath the tank or any buried tank found on site.
WETT inspection
$250 to $550, 3 to 8 days to book
A WETT-certified inspection of the wood stove, fireplace insert, liner and clearances, with the certificate insurers ask for.
Mould and air quality test
$400 to $1,200, 2 to 6 days to book
Air and surface sampling with lab speciation, and a moisture-source investigation so the remediation fixes the cause and not the stain.
Thermal imaging scan
$150 to $400, 1 to 4 days to book
Infrared survey of walls, ceilings and floors for missing insulation, air leakage, moisture behind finishes and failed in-floor heating loops.
Former grow operation assessment
$800 to $2,500, 3 to 10 days to book
Moisture and mould testing, electrical bypass evidence, and remediation records where a property has a stigmatised history.
Nothing on a listing record can establish this one. It comes from a police report, a municipal order or a neighbour, so it will never appear above no matter what the data says.
