I recently got hammered by a selling agent that I was citing code violations and that is not what an inspection is for. GFCI, smoke detectors,
I am perplexed. Many of the items we inspect are related to code. Just wondering if anyone else has had this kind of encounter and how you handled it.
No agent ever sets the scope of your inspection. They have no more business telling you what your job is than you do in telling them how to sell houses.
I’m curious as to the when, what, where and how this selling agent became involved in your inspection and how they actually “hammered” you.
It might also be worthwhile for you to share how you documented these “code deficiencies” or “code violations”.
What state you operate in and what SOP you operate under are essential pieces of information too.
If a seller’s agent ever attempted to tell me what my report was or was not about, I would ask where he got his home inspector training. I would also remind him that I work for the buyer, and that I tell them the same things I would want to know about the home before I bought it. If I felt particularly irate, I would tell him that if he was really concerned about what came up in an inspection report, that perhaps next time he might advise his client to make sure his home is ready for an inspection before the inspector shows up.
In my training I was told not to cite code, but instead couch deficiencies in my reports in terms of “accepted safety and/or structural standards”. This makes sense to me, because code changes over time, application varies from city to city, and a good deal of what constitutes what is and isn’t a deficiency isn’t mentioned in code.
For instance, I have noticed on some gas range burners that the flame goes out when set all the way to “Low”. I don’t know if there is any “code” regarding that, and frankly I don’t care. It’s dangerous and it’s going in my report.