How to Prepare for a Home Inspection
Preparation is mostly access. Oregon rule lets an inspector skip anything blocked, and every skipped item is a finding you paid for and did not get.
Clear access to the electrical panel, water heater, furnace, attic hatch and crawlspace, and leave all utilities on. OAR 812-008-0204 says an inspector is not required to move furniture, personal items, insulation or debris, or to operate systems that are shut down. Blocked access becomes a stated limitation instead of a finding.
What the rule lets an inspector decline
Under OAR 812-008-0204 an inspector is not required to move personal items, furniture, panels, insulation, soil, snow, ice or debris.
They are not required to enter areas or perform procedures that risk damage or danger. They are not required to operate systems that are shut down or unresponsive.
A crawlspace hatch behind stored boxes, a locked panel, or an electrical service switched off all convert into stated limitations rather than findings.
The access list
Everything below takes about an hour and directly changes how much of the house gets examined.
- Clear three feet in front of the electrical panel, water heater and furnace
- Unblock the attic hatch and the crawlspace or basement access
- Leave gas, water and electricity on, including breakers you normally keep off
- Unlock gates, sheds and outbuildings you want looked at
- Move stored boxes off the crawlspace entry and away from the perimeter
- Secure pets, and plan to be away or unobtrusive for two to three hours
For sellers, a few extra items
Replace dead bulbs, because an inspector reports a non-functioning fixture and cannot tell a bulb from a wiring fault without testing.
Clear gutters and trim vegetation off the siding and roof edge. Both read as maintenance findings and both are cheap to fix beforehand.
What preparation cannot buy
Detached structures, cosmetic items and anything underground stay excluded no matter how accessible you make them.
Heating oil tanks, sewer laterals and radon need their own specialists. Tidying the crawlspace does not bring them into scope.
Asked and answered
Buyers benefit from attending, because verbal detail rarely survives into the written report. Sellers are usually better away, so the inspector and buyer can talk freely.
The inspector is not required to move it, so the crawlspace becomes a stated limitation. That is a section of the house you paid to have examined and did not.
Yes, if you want the system examined. An inspector is not required to operate shut-down or unresponsive equipment, and will not light a pilot for you.