Ian, I'd not be too hasty in judging the inspector.
It's a fact of life that, when a builder puts up a development, inspectors are not about to closely examine every detail of every house. It's far more likely that they will carry out 'spot checks' on a few houses, then sign off on all of them.
Whether this is right or wrong is not really the issue. There is an entire doctrine of quality control ("Statistical Quality Management") based on this principle. Whether such a program was actually administered, with all the necessary procedures, is unknown.
What IS known, according to the OP, is that this particular house was clearly made by a different crew than the other homes in the tract. One bad employee can cause all manner of troubles.
Naturally - regardless of the inspection being passed - there are numerous folks who should have said "there's something wrong here!"
Ah I got it now. Thanks for the info John, I'll remember it for the next one.
Ian A.
