Contracts & Reports
Your Pre-Inspection Agreement: Exclusions
Exclusions are items of risk specifically not covered by a contract to avoid excessive liability. In pre-inspection agreements, exclusions limit or eliminate your responsibility to inspect for certain defects or examine certain systems and components. By outlining the conditions and circumstances your inspection does not cover within your agreement, you can better serve your clients…
Read MoreYour Pre-Inspection Agreement: Scope
Your inspection scope. Merriam-Webster defines the term scope as an “intention” or “object,” meaning “the goal or end of an effort or activity.” One objective of your pre-inspection agreement is to define the scope, or purpose, of your inspection. According to Matthew Steger of WIN Home Inspection in Pennsylvania, including the scope in your agreement…
Read MoreYour Pre-Inspection Agreement: Your First Line of Defense
In California court case Moreno v. Sanchez, the home buyers sued their home inspector for breach of contract, negligence and negligent misrepresentation. The buyers had discovered dust and asbestos, an inoperable drain, defective windows and wall cracking. They believed that the inspector should be responsible for the damage. The inspector’s primary defense: his inspection agreement,…
Read MoreInspection Report Writing: 8 Best Practices
For inspection clients and home inspectors alike, inspection reports are worth their weight in gold. Many inspection clients—often home buyers—rely on the findings inspectors detail in their reports to make important purchasing decisions. “[The inspection report is] basically a giant list of everything that is wrong with your (potential) home,” explained Kristin Wong in her…
Read More3 inspection photos you should take to manage your risk
In North Carolina, a home inspector performed an inspection on a property that had been vacant for about 18 months. During the home inspection, the inspector ran the water in the various fixtures, including the shower directly above the kitchen. The inspector photographed the kitchen, including the ceiling, which, at the time, showed no signs…
Read MoreWho can sign my pre-inspection agreement?
Two years after the inspection, a multi-inspector firm received a county court summons. Within the summons, the inspection company’s former clients made a litany of allegations: Termites occupied multiple areas on the first floor, including the garage. One of the anchor plates on the basement wall was “moldy musty.” The bottom of the heating unit…
Read MoreInspection assets: How to store inspection contracts, reports, photos, and videos
In Massachusetts, claimants alleged that a home inspector missed over $30,000 in property damages. According to the claimants, the inspector failed to identify a bow in the exterior wall along with resulting water, structural, and pest damage. The crawlspace that exhibited most of the issues was inaccessible at the time of the inspection, and the…
Read MoreWhy you need an arbitration clause in your pre-inspection agreement
Over a year after their inspection, one of our insureds received a letter from an attorney. The attorney alleged that the insured was negligent in performing the home inspection and failed to identify multiple defects. The letter demanded that the insured pay to cover the cost of repairs to multiple areas of the property. These…
Read MoreHome Inspection Contract Language: Top 5 Things to Include in Your Pre-Inspection Agreement
Pre-inspection agreements are home inspectors’ foundations. Without them, clients are left to assume the nature of inspections. And as inspector and mentor Jan Banks stated in a previous article, clients for whom expectations aren’t set often believe inspections are warranties. That leaves inspectors subject to a lot of unnecessary risk. But simply having an inspection…
Read MoreHow to write a report that clients understand
Second only to pre-inspection agreements, reports provide home inspectors with great claims protection. By providing a detailed account of both defects and sufficiencies, inspection reports can provide evidence of the home’s condition and the inspector’s competence at the time of inspection. Inspection reports can support an inspector’s defense and lead to quicker claims resolution. Better…
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