I just got finished going through the NACHI standards of practice to collect information conflicts between our new state law and our SOP. There is a substantial amount of guidance in the sop concerning projected life expectancy, age, capacity, engineering evaluation of HVAC equipment. None of which is required by NACHI or our state law.
A considerable effort seems evident that home inspectors are trying to produce a product in the least amount of time possible. Report writing takes as long if not longer than inspecting a home in some instances. I have asked this before, but I will ask it again; what is the fascination with age, identification and capacity of HVAC equipment? Is it just because you use a computer reporting system that will not allow you to change the format of the report? It seems that a lot of time is spent waiting on a reply to determine how old a piece of equipment is. It states in the NACHI sop course that the age of equipment alone should not be the basis of reporting deficient equipment. It specifically states that BTU capacity is not required in the written report.
I just went through my inspection report and changed the things that are unnecessary to report on in accordance with the sop and my state law, to reduce the time it takes me to write my inspection report (the state law increased several pages of “things you must report upon” and I’m trying to thin the fat). This does not mean I do not inspect these items, it just cuts down on the recollection of the inspection, potentially answering the question wrong and reporting an error/omission. I went through what appliances are required by my state law (which is not required by the NACHI sop) and took out any appliance that reporting is not required. It takes longer to do the written report, there is an increase liability with everything that you say and it appears that it is only “eye wash”. So why do it? Am I missing something here?