Before she bought her home, Darcy Zallen brought in a home inspector.
"What I said to him was this house is at the upper end of my affordability so if there are any major repairs to do I really can't afford them," Zallen said.
Darcy hired High Tech Home Inspections of Chilliwack, B.C.
Danny Brown is High Tech's owner. He did the inspection while Darcy wasn't there -- an apparent mix up in communications. They never attended the site together at the time of inspection --or after.
Darcy says she was assured the home was solid. But she says the home inspector missed a roof leak that had rotted one wall of the home. She says the repairs have cost her 40-thousand dollars and counting.
"I would never have bought a house that needed that kind of repair," she said.
Bruce Hunter is an independent home inspector Darcy brought in for a second look after problems cropped up. "The clues were all there," he said.
He says the problems with Darcy's home were easy to spot-- starting with the patched roof.
"What an inspector is supposed to look for is clues," he said. "Did I see something there that should push me further on to look down below?"
Outside Hunter says the wooden soffits were obviously rotted.
"When you lifted that up you think ‘Oh my God, I've got a problem'," he said.
Darcy had selected High Tech Home Inspection from a list of 30 provided by a home relocation company.
"I assumed they were all the same," she said.
The problem for home buyers is there are four different licensed home inspection organizations each with different standards.
"He should show you a standard of practice that outlines all the items that he will and will not inspect in the house," Hunter said.
Danny Brown defended his inspection in a telephone interview.
"There was nothing wrong with the inspection or the inspection report," he said.
Forced to re-mortgage and now financially stretched to the limit, Darcy says she was educated the hard way
"Basically life is not very fun," she said.
So what happened to the home inspector? Danny Brown was investigated by his association which found he violated their code of ethics in his dealings with the home owner Darcy Zallen.
Find out that means for him and Darcy tomorrow.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen.