The "upset" email

The “upset” email

Often when a client has a problem with your Home Inspection they notify you by way of an email.  People generally don’t call with complaints because they are afraid of the confrontation.  There is nothing wrong with contacting someone via email but we hope that the first contact is not notification that we are being taken to court.

Over the span of 10 years and after performing over two thousand, two hundred inspections I have been involved in 15 situations that ended with dissatisfied clients.  One was my fault and I paid some restitution for my error. One wasn’t my fault but I paid-up anyway.  (My clients were a young couple who were just staring out and I felt sorry for them).  The other dozen or so were people trying to get me to pay (or more accurately to get my insurance company to pay) for something wrong with their house that developed months after they moved in. Apparently lots of people are under the false assumption that having a Home Inspection is like buying a warranty on all the systems of a house!

The most recent situation involved a single woman for whom I inspected a house three years ago. She purchased the house and presumably there were no problems until a year ago when Hurricane Irene blew through and a skylight in the addition started leaking.  An unscrupulous roofer looked at the leak and charged her $6,000.00 for a complete new roof. He told her the Home Inspector should have caught the defective roof, and she would have no problem getting the inspector’s insurance company to pay for the new one.  Two months after the roofing job was finished she brought me to small claims court. 

Among the many mistakes she made in this situation most importantly she did not call the Home Inspector (me) to try and resolve the complaint as soon as it was noticed.  I could have explained about the nature of the inspection and that it is not a lifetime guarantee. I would have pointed out the extreme nature of the storm situation, and that nobody could have reasonably foreseen that this leak would occur two years in the future. I would have explained also that the Home Inspector is usually only responsible for the inspection fee; except in cases of gross negligence. I could have also counseled her to shop around for a contractor before having major work done.  The roof was architectural shingle approximately three years old; at the time I inspected the house, and likely did not need a complete replacement.

The bottom line is the judge is probably still laughing about this case.  He looked at her and said, “You have to prove that when the inspector looked at this roof he should have known it was defective.”  She withdrew her suit.

The thing I have learned over the years is; if you find you have a problem, immediately follow-up on it (whether by email or phone), don’t procrastinate, it only makes the situation worse. It is good business to inform your client at the time of the inspection of your availability should any questions or problems arise.  Encourage them to call or email you before a problem goes too far.  Follow up with your client a month or so after the inspection to be sure all is well.

We Home Inspectors understand the misconceptions about this business and are happy to clarify the true nature of our services.  Inspectors are usually good about giving advice (as long as it is only a courtesy service) in regard to repairs and contractors.  If a mistake has been made by an inspector, he deserves the opportunity to make it right, without litigation, if possible. And believe me, the burden of proof that belongs to the plaintiff is a tough sell in court- even if there was an oversight.

Practice Does Not Make Perfect

Practice Does Not Make Perfect

(Only perfect practice makes perfect)

I recently had the opportunity to review another inspector’s Home Inspection Report.  One of my students is selling his grandmother’s house and the student brought me the report that one prospective buyer had used to get out of the transaction.  The report I saw was created by a Home Inspector that I know. This Home Inspector has been doing business longer than I and, in my opinion, performed a perfectly good inspection on that house.  I previously had the opportunity to do a walk-thru inspection of that same house with my student prior to reviewing the other inspection report.  This made me familiar with the issues he found and reported.

His report and style of reporting prompted several thoughts about how Home Inspectors perform their craft:

 

1.   The other Home Inspector completed an adequate, professional inspection, and found a legitimate issue that got his client out of the transaction with no arguments from anyone involved.

2.   The Inspector’s findings were clearly stated in his report and there was absolutely no confusion as to the major issue. 

3.   I was ‘put off’ by the format of this report; I did not like it, but I had to admit it was perfectly functional and met all the basic requirements of a professional Home Inspection Report.  The Inspection and report served the client even though it was lacking many of the modern improvements and benefits of the reporting style I prefer.

 

His report had no pictures. The report did not go into detail. The Inspector used a style of language that I would never have used and reported on things I believe are better left out of a Home Inspection Report.   

We Home Inspectors have our own comfort zones when it comes to reports.  We are likely never going to report what we find the same way another inspector does, and yet differing styles are capable to do the job (if done well).

What I take away from this is the way someone first learns to inspect and to report is critical to who he or she becomes as a Home Inspector.  It is very doubtful that a Home Inspector will ever vary far from the way he first learned the job.  After six months to a year of doing this job the habits are formed which allow us to get comfortable with the way we do things like write our reports.  We will probably never change.   

This gentleman learned how to perform a home inspection 20 years ago.  He does not use pictures in his reports and I am doubtful he ever will.  Luckily he is performing his inspections well, despite being behind the times.  I am sure many inspectors are out there and comfortable in their improper, inadequate and perhaps dangerously habituated methods. They are just as unlikely to change until something goes terribly wrong for them or for someone else. 

This really underscores the importance of learning to do this job the right way, practicing proper methods from the beginning.