Here’s your Valentine Day’s gift.
Don’t rely on an engineer’s inspection certificate / Form 12 for structural work unless the person who inspected the work was:
a) an engineer
b) attended the site in person
c) took photos to show they were there
d) can provide those photos upon request
Too many times in recent months we’ve identified poor construction practices as identified by a HOMEOWNER even after the “INSPECTOR” approved the construction. The biggest joke in the industry is waiting to meet the inspector on site and when you call them they say they already inspected the work and it passed!!!

Where in the world are we that homeowners are being asked to know more than an engineers’ inspector who inspects 10 to 20 properties per day?
OH, WAIT! Perhaps that’s the problem!!! Nobody can inspect that many properties in a day when considering travel time, reporting time, and meeting with a builder to ensure they understand the defects/requirements.
Whether the industry is booming or dwindling, people (e.g., builders and engineers) are always looking for shortcuts—trying to find cheaper ways to get the job done.
But are they cheaper when homeowners then have to shoulder the burden of identifying structural deficiencies/problems and getting them fixed?
What of the builder who rightly claims the Form 12 is signed by an engineer so the work MUST be compliant?
- Where does that leave the builder?
- Where does that leave the homeowner?
- Where does that leave the certifier?
Can they rely on the Form 12 and pass the responsibility to the engineer who signed the Form 12?
Go back and read our post on the Dog Ate My Homework. That’s the engineer’s get out of jail free. The paperwork doesn’t exist so the engineer can’t possibly be at fault. Right?
So now we have this endless loop of blame game shifters who have all managed to get away with doing a lacklustre job, backed up by incompetence, missing paperwork, cost-cutting and booming profits for work not even done let alone done well.
Does any of this sound possible in a modern economy? Look next door at the house being renovated! Look over the road at the house being built by that builder with the shiny marketing and promises of 6 month construction period!
Check out your local mass construction builder relaxing in his brand-new office, driving his shiny new luxury car and waving a middle finger at consumers.
Yep. Possible maybe even probable.
And this is in a state where we have a consumer watchdog, builder registration process, several builder’s associations (for protection of the builders against the pesky registration process), registration for engineers (including a stinky, decaying complaints process managed by bureaucrats) and consumers who are already fighting tooth and nail to keep some of their weekly salary for their dream home.
Happy Valentine’s Day. Go and buy some roses.
(first published on Cornell Engineers’ Facebook Account)