A home inspection covers a great deal. It does not, as standard, include putting a camera down the sewer lateral — and on an older Metro Vancouver property, that buried line is one of the largest single liabilities you can inherit.
You will not see it, your inspector will not see it, and the seller may genuinely not know. It becomes yours on completion.
Why it is not in a standard inspection
Home inspectors work visually and non-destructively. The sewer lateral is buried, and looking inside requires a camera, a locator, an access point and someone who does that work. It is a specialist inspection, and it is usually offered as an add-on or arranged separately.
What it tells you
The condition and material of the pipe. Whether roots have entered and how far it has gone. Cracks, breaks, offsets and collapsed sections. Bellies where the line has sagged and holds water. Where any defect is, how deep, and — critically — what is on the surface above it.
That last point often matters more than the defect itself. A break under a lawn is a straightforward repair. The same break under a concrete driveway, a mature tree or a city sidewalk is a very different proposition.
When it is most worth doing
Older homes. The materials used in earlier decades have known failure patterns, and age alone is a reason to look.
Mature trees anywhere near the line — which in much of Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster means most established properties.
Any property where you cannot establish when the line was last replaced.
Homes that have been renovated, where drainage may have been altered.
Homes that have sat empty, where problems have not been noticed because nobody was there to notice.
Timing, and why it is tight
This has to happen inside your subject removal period, which is short and does not move for anyone.
Practically: arrange it as soon as your offer is accepted, at the same time as the general inspection if you can. Access has to be arranged with the seller. And you need the results back in time to act on them — an inspection whose report arrives after subjects are removed has told you something you can no longer use.
Ask specifically for recorded footage and a written report with locations. Both matter if the result becomes part of a negotiation.
What to do with a bad result
A scope that finds problems is not automatically a reason to walk. It is information, and information is leverage.
The options are usually: negotiate a price reduction reflecting the repair, make repair a condition of sale, ask the seller to do it before completion, or accept it knowingly and budget for it. Any of those is a better position than finding out afterwards.
What you need in order to negotiate is a real scope of work — what is wrong, where, and what fixing it involves. That is what turns "the sewer has problems" into a number.
If you are selling
Doing this before you list is worth considering. If the line is sound you have removed a source of buyer anxiety. If it is not, you have found out at a moment when you can decide what to do rather than during someone else's subject removal, on their timeline, with no leverage.
The alternative is that the buyer's inspection finds it and you negotiate from behind.
What it does not cover
The scope looks at the lateral. It does not assess perimeter drainage, which is a separate system with separate failures, and on an older property it may be worth asking about both.
Turnaround
Subject removal deadlines do not wait, and we understand that. Tell us the deadline when you call and we will tell you honestly whether we can meet it.
Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, New Westminster. 604-865-7979.
Related: Sewer scope — before you buy · Sewer line repair and replacement · Poly-B and your insurance
