Home-Buyer Inspection Software in Canada

Canadian pre-purchase findings are dominated by what a long heating season does to an envelope, and by how much of the answer is provincial rather than national.

Envelope and moisture as the core of the report

Attic ventilation and bypasses, ice damming history at the eaves, basement and foundation moisture, and the continuity of the vapour barrier are the findings that most often carry real cost. Each deserves its own photographs and readings rather than a shared summary paragraph.

These defects interact rather than stand alone: a bypass into a cold attic, a discontinuous vapour barrier and inadequate ventilation can produce the same visible staining by different routes. A report that names the suspected mechanism gives the purchaser something to price.

EnerGuide and what a gigajoule figure means

The EnerGuide rating administered by Natural Resources Canada expresses modelled energy use in gigajoules per year rather than as a letter grade, and ENERGY STAR for New Homes certifies above-code new construction. Disclosure at sale is required or encouraged in some provinces and municipalities and not in others.

Because that scale is unfamiliar to buyers used to letter grades, a report quoting a figure should say which scheme and which vintage produced it. As elsewhere, a modelled rating describes assumptions rather than observed condition.

Provincial scope and the tests that sit outside it

The National Building Code is a model document adopted and amended province by province, so Ontario’s Building Code, the BC Building Code and Quebec’s Construction Code differ in detail. Home inspector licensing exists in British Columbia and Alberta and is voluntary elsewhere.

Radon testing is normally a separate recommendation rather than part of a visual inspection, and Health Canada’s guideline for indoor radon is 200 becquerels per cubic metre. Saying plainly that no test was carried out prevents a purchaser assuming otherwise.

Configuration for Canada

• Use CAD for cost schedules and repair allowances.
• Use “mould” in condition descriptions, and YYYY-MM-DD for dates.
• Scope the report against the scope permitted by any applicable provincial licensing scheme.
• Use EXIF-derived capture times, with an attachment-time fallback, for photographic evidence.