Greater Lansing
Rental inspection corrections
A failed rental inspection is one of the few jobs where the scope is already written down. The inspector has listed what failed and the code behind it, which means the whole thing can be priced off the report before anybody walks the unit.
What is actually wrong
A correction list is a different animal from a repair list, and the difference is who wrote it. It arrives from an inspector rather than from a tenant, every line on it has a code behind it, and it comes with a re-inspection date that does not move because the contractor was busy.
The temptation with a list like this is to make the citation go away rather than to fix what caused it. That is not done here, and there is a sentence for it on the quotes: we will not make a citation disappear cosmetically while leaving a hazard behind it.
Where this stops
When it is not a handyman job
This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor license is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.
- Anything on the list needing a licensed electrician or plumber is referred out and named as such on the quote — new circuits, panels, service upgrades, water-heater replacement.
- No structural alteration; the Michigan residential builder license is not held.
- A hazard is reported rather than hidden. If tracing reveals wiring that is unsafe, the work stops and you are shown it.
The work itself
What actually gets done
Working the list line by line and reporting against the inspector’s own numbering rather than ours.
Smoke and carbon-monoxide detector installation and replacement, including the urgent ones.
Receptacle, GFCI and fixture corrections within repair and like-for-like scope.
Handrails, guards, steps, doors and locks brought back to a condition that passes.
Photographs against each item, so the re-inspection has something to read.
Being on site for the re-inspection walk-through where that helps.
This work sits inside General Repairs, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.
What it costs
There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.
The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.
How many items and how many of them are the same item repeated across a building.
Whether any line needs a licensed trade, which is priced and arranged separately rather than absorbed.
What the re-inspection date is, which changes sequencing rather than the rate.
Whether the property is occupied, and how many units have to be accessed.
How to get a real number
Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labor, and labor carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.
If this is happening right now
What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.
Before anybody arrives
- Send the correction letter itself rather than a summary of it. The item numbers are what the work gets reported against.
- Say what the re-inspection date is in the first message. It is the only date on this kind of job that matters.
- Flag which units are occupied and who holds access.
Call the business line
(517) 505-7135Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.
On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.
- No trip charge
- No call-out fee or minimum
- No diagnostic fee
- No charge for a return visit
True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.
Or send the detailsWhen the right answer is not this company
- You can smell gas
- Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
- Water you cannot stop
- Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
- Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once
- A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
- Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel
- Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
- No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed
- A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.
Where this is being asked for
One town has enough behind it for a page of its own.
This work is done everywhere on the coverage list. These are the towns where the enquiry record and the job record both have something specific to say, so they get a page that says it. The rest do not, because a page with nothing true on it is worse than no page.
Questions people actually ask
Can you work directly from the city’s correction letter?
Yes, and that is the preferred way to run it — the quote and the completion report are both written against the inspector’s own item numbers, so the re-inspection has a document that lines up with the one it issued.
What if one of the items needs a licensed trade?
It is separated out, named on the quote, and arranged with a licensed electrician or plumber rather than absorbed into a handyman line. Doing it the other way round is how a corrected item fails the re-inspection.
Send the inspection report
Email or photograph the report itself rather than describing it, and tell us the re-inspection date. Every item gets read against the code reference the inspector cited, priced as one scope, and closed in one visit where the unit allows it. Where an item is licensed electrical or plumbing work we say so up front and it goes to the right trade rather than being quietly left off. Coming out is free and there is no trip charge.