Client asking for money for skylight repair

Hi all; looking for an opinion. I inspected a home last August and noted stains on a skylight wall shaft. These observations were included in the report s follows:

“There is staining noted on the FH Bedroom skylight shaft walls, as well as in the RH living room skylight shaft walls. Recommend monitor during wet weather to see if there are any active leaks.”

As part of my service I include the RWS warranty package, one of which is a 5 year leak protection on the roof.

The client contacted RWS, but the claim was rejected due to being under the deductible. The repair cost was $260.

The client emailed me today with the following:

Hi Steven

I hope this email finds you well.

Just wanted to see if you would be willing to cover the cost of the roof repair we had to undertake given your insurance wouldn’t cover as the claim amount was less than the deductible.

The receipt is attached.

Thank you for consideration.

Cheers
Christina

Now I know I have no obligation to give her any money, as I did note the damage in the report.

My question is does anyone have any suggestions on a friendly yet direct response denying her request, so I don’t burn any bridges?

Thanks for any feedback!!

The “your insurance” part is why I can’t get behind these warranties. When you provide the warranty to them, whether free or paid, you are now one of the insurance representatives. And honestly, these warranty companies do not have a track record that I want to be a part of.

It’s only $260 so not too big of a deal. If I was in your shoes and had given/sold them a warranty, I’d probably offer to pay half the invoice as a show of goodwill. But that is dependent on their attitude and my mood that day, lol.

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This, essentially, let’s the home seller off the hook and places the liability on the new home buyer. This is misleading at best. You had no idea that the skylight was not leaking [because you did not water test it]. In fact, you had evidence [in form of stains] suggesting the skylight IS or WAS leaking. The monitoring stuff is what’s known as soft reporting. What should have happened is the seller should have provided written evidence that the skylight WAS repaired. I bet there was no such paper work. Without such paper work, I would advise the client the skylight is likely leaking as evident by the stains.

Now you know how they do it, in part. Deny Deny Deny! How would you feel if you were the client? :slight_smile: Always try to see it from the other side, not just yours.

If I was a new home buyer and read your report, and the skylight leaked after the first heavy rain, I would be pissed!

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Spot on…

I would probably take the hit on this just keep my reputation intact because your narrative was a bit troublesome. Be sure to get a waiver of liability signed. :+1:

Next step, ditch the warranties and write harder. Best of luck with this. It is a PIA for sure.

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I hate “monitor” and rarely use it. I’d likely have written that up as “evidence of past leakage. Inquire with the seller about past repairs and if none can be verified an ongoing or intermittent problem likely exists.” All that being said for the $260 I’d just write the check and be done with it. Especially if you presented a warranty of some type.

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Are you tell me someone purchases a home worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and is looking for 260 bucks in repair costs? Lol!!!

Explain, I am sorry, but unfortunately, the warranty is all I offer.

“Your insurance” is exactly why I never participated in those gimmicks…I’m with Ryan.

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This is the biggest problem with inspectors offering home warranties, I understand that many think it’s a selling point, but it can and usually will come back to bite you because the client now blames you for the failed warranty claim, which could be the reason they hired you in first place, case in point.

I would pay the $260.00, consider it a lesson learned and move on. The alternative could end up costing you much more in lost buisness in the long run.

Dry stains were viewed around the skylight. Make inquiry with current owner concerning present or past leaks.

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Yes, it’s called a principle and integrity – very few poses these nowadays, unfortunately. Don’t sell to and put homebuyer’s mind at ease by offering warranties that don’t work! it clearly didn’t work in this case, the claim was denied! Is this how your treat clients? you laugh at them? If $260 is a mere joke to you, why don’t you cut the check and send it to the OP’s client.

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If you decide to deny reimbursement, I recommend formatting a response in a formal letter. A formal letter usually has three parts in the body of the letter. (1)I would first thank them for their business, (2)explain the limitations based on your contractual obligations, reported defects and SOP, (3)and then respectively decline their request.

I also agree with others here. I don’t offer warranties anymore. Most are not worth the paper their printed on and they usually end up making the inspector the fall guy.

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I personally would avoid using the word “Monitor” when it comes to visible staining or discoloration. Even if the seller says it was repaired. Why is the staining still present, obviously was not completely repaired as the staining is still visible, and what about between the wall and or ceiling there may be some type of microbial growth.

I am also not a fan of using insurance warranties as part of my service. I believe I would just pay it (with a release) and move on.

Here is some verbiage I would use

“At time of the inspection this inspector observed some staining and discoloration at (Location). This type of staining and discoloration is consistent with a moisture caused intrusion concern. It’s unknown if the cause for this condition was properly repaired. Our recommendations are to consult with the seller about this concern and any documentation of the repairs made, and or further evaluation from a qualified licensed contractor and any corrective repairs that may be needed.”

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When I was in business never once ever considered getting involved with warrantees or insurance of any form, Florida law is fairly strict about who can sell such products and home inspectors ain’t listed.

Personally the main reason for never jumping on the warranty bandwagon was I didn’t understand how a company could underwrite a policy on a product they had no knowledge of. My view was that the warranty wasn’t worth the risk to my business reputation.

So… if it were me being faced with having to pay this customer $260… I’d send the check and be thankful to be off the hook, because I’d be concerned that if I didn’t pay up the customer may take it to a higher level and open up a real can-O-worms.

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You wrote a “soft” or passive report that does not tell or provide your client with the severity of the issue. Water stains equal a leak! Another way to have reported this would be like this; " I found water stains on the skylight shaft. This is an indication of a leak, I could not tell if it was active since it was not raining. Have the proper repairs made."… This gives your client the information they need to understand the problem and a possible solution.

I would offer to take care of that expense, or at least offer to pay half.

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If you do decide to send a check to your client don’t do so without FIRST having them sign a Release of Liability form, protecting you from any other claims.

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Because they never had any intention to pay.

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I always told my clients if they were interested in a home warranty they should talk to their realtor about it as they would be much more knowledgeable on the subject than I was…I was never interested in jumping into that mess…

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This is the exact reason I don’t offer home warranties. The warranty companies sell it to inspectors as a way to reduce liability and some inspectors use it to reduce their responsibility. I don’t want to fall into the same trap that my competitors have.

https://posts.gle/TP81TtGsBZp78vtG9?g_st=ic

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Thing of it is that we can’t escape our personal biases, but we can explore their nature and learn to recognize when these biases might be triggering a response to a situation.

Being able to coldly explore the notion of using warrantees either as a marketing cow to be milked or as a protection from being sued, it is important to logically think through the consequences of when things go tits-up and what is at stake.

I suggest reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, for those who like summary video’s there is this.

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The way I see it. If you used the warranty as a marketing tool for a home buyer to draw them to you. You should pay the request. Just my 2cents.

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They only want $260? Pay it.
Learn. Cheap lesson.
And you just spent more than $260 of time from all the HI’s who read and commented on your situation.

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