Client forwarded an inspection from last year.

I recently had a client forward their report to a third party. That’s pretty typical. However this report was done nearly a year ago.

Any thoughts?

Should I reach out to them?

Thanks.

I would not reach out them personally. I do understand that uneasy feeling when you see that notification, tho. If they need you or there is a problem, they won’t hesitate to call you.

Thanks Skyler!

Can you guys NOT “archive” the report and make it unavailable? Seems to me you are creating your own headaches by keeping it available nonstop. It (typically) is no longer needed for the transaction after 45 days. Most realtors print a copy for their files at 30 days.

Yes, you can turn off accessibility to past reports and you should.

At what point? 60 days, 90 says?

Why? I get a lot of referrals and inspections from past clients that forward their report to a friend to view. The odds of an agent forwarding an old report to a new potential buyer are pretty slim IMO.

Because that’s how you feel when you conduct an Inspection based upon a deferral perspective. You get that sinking feeling in your gut when you think there may have been something you failed to catch and recommend further evaluation by someone else so you didn’t have to do your job.

James … Don’t freak out they’re probably just sending it to an attorney so he can give it to HIS inspector to review it before the lawsuit.

In the past 2 months I’ve had 4 past customers send my report to a 3rd party.

2 were from 4 years back; 1 from 5 yrs; and 1 from 6 yrs.

Lot of time they’re selling and wanta show new buyers what was wrong AND what they’ve fixed. Other times maybe something went wrong; the repair bozo said something like: Your home inspector should have … / Then they look at the report and see THEIR inspector did say / They just didn’t do anything.

Anyway, have a good day!

Not sure it makes a big difference but I changed my contract indicating I am the owner of the report to help avoid the third party issue:

The inspection and report are for the use of CLIENT only, who gives COMPANY permission to discuss observations with real estate agents, owners, repair persons, and other interested parties. COMPANY shall be the sole owner of the report and all rights to it. COMPANY accepts no responsibility for use or misinterpretation by third parties, and third parties who rely on it in any way do so at their own risk and release COMPANY (including employees and business entities) from any liability whatsoever.

I also include this statement on every report.

I have always left access of the report to the buyer. Think of it this way. They can save the pdf and send it and do to whomever anytime they want. With HG Services you are informed when they forward it. If you send a pdf then you don’t know. I’d rather know and see who they forwarded it to. Besides it is great marketing to leave it on and gives the buyer access to come back and view it. As an inspector we sometimes hopes the report self destructs as soon as they read it. I understand. But that is never true. The ones who want to seek legal action can have their attorney request a copy of the report for up to 5 years in most areas. You have to produce it then. So why not stand behind your report and agreement and provide a service to your agents and buyers by storing the report for them.

The only negative I see is that sometimes the agent sends the report to another buyer. They will do that with your pdf too and you won’t know it because it was an attachment to an email. It cannot be tracked. Only unless the new buyer calls you. As others above have said it is great marketing to leave it accessible. This way you know when it becomes alive again. You get marketing from it as many buyers maybe would like to see the report but wants their own inspection or may call you to re-inspect. If they do, I always informed them that I could do a full inspection for them (not a review).

The last post above this one suggested adding some wording to the report. I f you wanted too you could add it to the General Info page below your comment key and definitions. The above wording sounded good but I would probably word it a little more restrictive to make the agent and buyer feel they are wrong to be using it. Someone could get an attorney to write it better but I have seen some inspection reports that say something similar:

This inspection report is property of the person named in the report. It is forbidden for any third party to use this report to make an informed decision on the purchase of this property. Some areas of the home may have been omitted or the condition of an area of the home if the person named on the report did not want that part inspected, or planned to remove or remodel an area. Time since this inspection report can allow conditions to change. If you are not the person named in this report do not use this report. Contact the home inspector and request a new full inspection on this property.