Remodeled Kitchen/Bathrooms

DH and I are actively house hunting. When looking at houses, I see most of them have a remodeled kitchen, bathroom, or both. Is it legal to ask who the contractor was and then contact the contractor to verify?

I don't want to end up in a situation where it looks nice, but ends up being cr*p after we move in and its too late.

Re: Remodeled Kitchen/Bathrooms

you would probably get the answers you need from the home inspector when you get the house inspected. im not sure if you can go around contacting remodelers. and if you do, its not like theyre going to tell you they did anything less then a great job anyway.. a third party inspection would prob be the most objective
good luck!

Re: Remodeled Kitchen/Bathrooms

Re: Remodeled Kitchen/Bathrooms

I would definitely not rely on a home inspector to tell you if renovations are legit. They have no history of the house and may not even know what the towns rules are. I would contact the town hall of the house(es) you are questioning.

Re: Remodeled Kitchen/Bathrooms

if its anything that would require a CO then check with the town/village as far as asking about who did the kitchen/bathroom if its really recent you could ask about the contractor (you can really ask about anything) but look at the details. Are the cabinets strong and sturdy, how is the hardware on them? How are the tiles - grout lines really neat and spaced correctly?

Re: Remodeled Kitchen/Bathrooms

I think your off base to ask that IMO

I think that your home inspector will find anythig done wrong (if you hire a good one)

for example: We were trying to buy a house that the home owner/contractor to his own company did all the work on. he wired the entire kitchen wrong. but on the outside it looked amazing. my DH who even worked in costruction and built houses, couldn't even see what the inspector saw.

secondly- a homeowner sometimes does a MUCH better job because they don't cut corners and they take pride in the job. just because a contractor did the job, doesn't mean his worker Joey that day, cared, and put his heart and soul into what he did. he might have done something wrong, but knew how to patch it so no one ever saw it. A homeowner, isn't going to do that as often

Re: Remodeled Kitchen/Bathrooms

I wasn't implying that a homeowner couldn't do a better job--I just currently live in a condo where the previous owner "updated" the kitchen and its terrible. It looked ok from the outside, but once I lived there I realized it was a half-a$$ed job done to sell the place.

I assume if a contractor did this work for him (or in any house), the homeowner would've complained had they paid $20K++ for cabinets that were falling off the wall and floor tiles peeling up.

Re: Remodeled Kitchen/Bathrooms