Home inspections – finding the right balance
Sam Schneiderman, broker owner of Great Boston Home Team (our Monday guy) chimes on about home inspectors.
At a continuing education class taught by a home inspector class last week, I heard about a radon-testing canister placed in a crawl space during a home inspection. That location is not in accord with EPA protocols. The results came back high and buyers asked sellers to install a radon mitigation system. The sellers responded that since the radon testing did not conform to EPA guidelines, sellers would not concede to buyers’ request.
The buyers sued the inspector. At trial, the inspector produced his contract, which stated that he was not responsible for placement of radon canisters; it was the buyer’s responsibility to determine its placement. Despite the fact that the inspector placed the canister in the wrong location with his own hands, the judge found that the language in the contract absolved the inspector from liability.
Later in the week, I reviewed a copy of a seventy-one page home inspection report (done by another inspector) on a property that one of my buyer-clients had inspected. Seventy-one pages is a record-breaking report length in my experience and, I believe, far to confusing for the average reader to absorb and prioritize. I noticed that a good deal of the report was devoted to comments like “I advise that all upper cabinets be screwed to the wall with correct screws and washers as a safety priority” for cabinets that had been in place for 32 years and “check all nuts, bolts and springs for safety” on the drop down attic staircase that he had used to access the attic. The report suggested that the buyer “contact the following tradesmen to view the property for reappraisal of each issue and cost estimates now prior to sale: Carpenter, Plumber, Electrician, Heating contractor, Mason, Driveway installer, Landscape contractor, Drywall pr plaster contractor, Tree surgeon, Chimney sweep”. In case you are wondering how old the home is, it was built in 1978, has a 1988 addition and was fairly well kept by the sellers with the typical issues for homes of similar age and construction.
Another inspector has a much shorter report consisting of about 9 to 15 pages of clear checklists and handwritten comments done on-site. It includes boilerplate recommendations and disclaimers, but they are far fewer and more realistic ones, in my opinion. It covers each and every component of a home, however, there are some inspectors and buyers that feel it is not a long enough report. Even that report is often overwhelming to many buyers.
This is not a discussion of an of the inspector’s competence. All three inspectors are first rate and do not hesitate to point out anything they see to the buyers. The questions here are:
How much liability should an inspector assume based on a limited visual inspection of property?
Is there anything that an inspector should not be responsible for?
When is a report too long and when does it become too short?
