Our investigation proceeded to look up the license number listed on the report. Needless to say it does not belong to Mr Abkarian. A search by name found Mr Abkarian with a license number of 36027. The license status is listed as clear with an expiration date of June 30th 2022 and it says license type is civil engineer.

According to the balcony bill SB 316 only a licensed structural engineer or an architect may sign the report for a common interest development deck inspection. Being that Mr Abkarian is “only” a Civil Engineer”, he isn’t eligible from our understanding of the balcony bill to be eligible to sign off on a report of inspection. Interestingly one source told us that they never saw Mr Abkarian on site inspecting decks at the HOA where they live.

From our understanding and speaking with an attorney this would present a major problem for associations who have a report signed by Mr Abkarian that they’ve paid for. It is our belief that the report is invalid and possibly fraudulent due to being signed, apparently willingly, by Mr Abkarian. I have reached out several times to Mr Abkarian but have not reached him.

Furthermore customers of this “deck inspector” should know that the owner of this company also owns a waterproofing company. Our sources have told us the same similar story; how the company “recommends” this “deck inspector” for deck inspection work or vice versa without revealing the conflict of interest between the two companies.

There are substantial conflicts of interest, possibly fraud and certainly a matter of ethical character that exists here. I have been told by my sources that this so called deck inspector seems to call out small items and demand major repairs, often in the thousands of dollars that his company does the work. So this scumbag is double dipping from your HOA masquerading as a deck inspector/consultant while his construction and waterproofing company does unnecessary work.

I encourage HOAs who feel that they may have been victimized to contact their counsel at law immediately, and to contact me, Bill Leys at bill@deckexpert.com So that I can put all HOAs together for a discussion about a possible class action lawsuit.

If you want to do your own research I suggest that you start at the California Secretary of State website and look up any company you are considering doing business with and then double check against CSLB’s website for any conflicts of interest.