Research & Writing Assignment:
In a situation where the buyer asks you the inspector to write up the report worst than that finding because he/she would like to have a reason to negotiate the price of the home. I would explain to the customer that I report my findings and the facts as I see them. I by no means will right up a report to favor either party. If he/she isn’t happy with the way I will report on my findings, then they will need to let me know so I don’t do the inspection.
Research & Writing Assignment:
As a Home inspector you should never advertise as you are the expert. If you do then the courts will hold you liable due to your marketing. We are not experts in our field. We are more of generalists, similar to your general physician. You go to you primary when something is wrong with you and then sends you to the specialist to figure out exactly what is wrong. We play a similar role we never claim to be the experts when a customer has issues with electrical component for example. We always suggest that they should get it inspected by a professional licences electrician when we find something wrong.
Research & Writing Assignment:
My essay is on the article Doing Damage During an Inspection: It’s Your Job. This is a subject that many might think of their liability but contrary to your initial thoughts, this is the service you are being paid for. As inspectors we need to find the things that are failing in a home under any normal circumstance. Finding a hidden problem is not only our job but potentially a safety issue for our client.
Research & Writing Assignment:
Scenario: A real estate agent who sends many referrals requests the inspector “makes sure this home passes,” because they really need this commission.
My response: As the inspector, I would thank the agent for the many referrals and remind them that I am a professional just like they are. I owe my duties to the customer and have to keep their best interest in mind. I want to continue to receive referrals, but cannot compromise my integrity or violate the SOP for my career. In the long run, they agent will benefit by having happier customers as well.
Research & Writing Assignment:
Home Inspector Ethics: Why not pay to be on a brokers’ lists. This article outlines the importance of not only true ethics, but perceived ethics. The act of paying to be on a list only means that one can afford to be on the list as opposed to being on the list by merit. The inspector who pays to be on the list may be very ethical and the best inspector in the city, however, if something goes wrong they are immediately looked at, by the public, as having no worth. This discredits the inspection industry as a whole which is why it makes sense that the code of ethics would forbid inspectors from paying to be on lists.
Research & Writing Assignment:
A house seller is requesting that the inspector leave out the fact that there is structural damage to the porch steps in the back yard. The inspector would have the duty to inform them that they need to fix that prior to the inspection or have it be written up.
Research & Writing Assignment:
Accidentally breaking something during a home inspection is actually a blessing in disguise for the buyer. Without having in happen intentionally or having it happen after purchase you may be able to find some problems that need fixing the hard way.
Research & Writing Assignment:
Called in to inspect a home/restaurant. The restaurant part is closed for business but the owner is still making a packaging food for sale/delivery (possibly illegally). The place is a walking health violation, with overflowed toilets, no operable hot water, rats and roach’s visible, etc.
Should the health department be notified?
In my opinion, we are being paid to do a job, and part of that job is not to pull permits or perform a health department inspection.
So I would complete the job I was hired for and move on.
Research & Writing Assignment:
Scenario: The real estate agent insists that I do not comment on the damaged areas of a roofing system because they will be repaired the following week. I explain that it is not my duty to predict or assume the future condition of a home, but to inspect and evaluate the current condition as described in the SOP. And by violating this standard, I risk losing my CPI.
Research & Writing Assignment:
A home inspector is hired by a home buyer to inspect a home they intend to buy. While at the home inspection, the buyer’s Realtor privately encourages the home inspector to intentionally leave certain items that could be deemed as defective out of the home inspection report in order to make the Realtor’s negotiations during the home inspection phase of the sales contract easier, thus giving a higher likelihood for the sale of the home to be completed. The home inspector is then required to inform this Realtor that they are unable to falsify a report or to intentionally leave findings out of the report for any reason. A home inspector’s duty and ethical responsibility is to tell the truth about and accurately document the condition of the home in the report. The inspector has to do their job, which is to inspect the home, and not be concerned about whether or not the buyer decides to buy the home or if the Realtor gets makes money.
Research & Writing Assignment:
“If a Home Inspector Misses Something”
It is very important that a CPI include a copy of the SOP within their contract, and have the client sign and return said document, either physically or electronically. This information and legal binding will help protect the home inspector from possible “misses”.
Research & Writing Assignment:
I read an article on the dangers of inspectors referring to themselves as ‘experts’. You’d think that this would be an innocent comment to make, after all, a home inspector is certified and licensed and has received a great deal of education and training in their field. So a home inspector likely knows more than the average person about the inner workings of a home, and certainly more than the people who hire the inspectors to inspect a home they are buying. This level of knowledge and expertise sometimes leads us to assume that we can refer to ourselves as experts, when we absolutely should not. Referring to yourself as an expert either aloud or in print can change a client’s and the general public’s perception and/or opinion of you, and unwittingly, can get you into serious trouble if your now ‘expert’ work or opinion of a home is called into question or proven to be inaccurate. There is legal precedent for a client to expect that once a home inspector has deemed them self as an expert, that the inspector is correct about everything, and hence, no longer allowed to be wrong. If a disgruntled client were to show a court of law that you were wrong or made a mistake during an inspection of a home they bought, and then show the court that they hired you for their inspection because you claimed to be an expert, then they can argue that you are not in fact an expert and that you falsely claimed to be one. This can leave you open to a whole world of legal consequences. In short, do not claim to be an expert on anything, either aloud or in writing.
Research & Writing Assignment:
True story. I was doing a home inspection an hour into my inspection the real estate agent kept telling me to hurry up because she had another showing and she was running late. I politely told her that my client hired me to do a complete inspection and that’s what I intended to do. I said to her that she could leave and come back in about an hour, we will still be here.
Research & Writing Assignment:
Scenario: Upon my roof inspection I discover a repaired section of shingles on the roof, with corresponding indications of a prior roof leak in the attic below. As I am wrapping up my inspection, the homeowner mentions to me that there was a prior roof leak that had already been repaired and that I shouldnt mention it in my report because the issue had already been corrected.
Response: I would thank the homeowner for disclosing this information to me, but politely state to them that although there were no signs of an active leak at the time of inspection there was still evidence of the roof leak found at the time of the inspection. I would further state to them that because I am representing my client in this real estate transaction, I am ethically obliged to disclose any and all findings to them. In not doing so I can potentially violate the law, a statute, or the code of ethics that I uphold as a certified home inspector.
Research & Writing Assignment:
An example of an ethical situation that a home inspector might face could involve an exchange of words between the realtor and the inspector. The realtor could discreetly pull the inspector aside state that they need this inspection to go well because they are in dire need of a sale. The inspector must then decide which ethical direction they are going to take. An interNACHI certified home inspector would want to abide by the ethics code of conduct and professionally explain that they will be inspecting the house to interNACHI standards and for the safety of the future homeowner.
Research & Writing Assignment:
Doing Damage During an Inspection: It’s Your Job
by Nick Gromicko and Kate Tarasenko
I learned that instead of taking the immediate blame for damaging a system or part of a system during an inspection it is important to reframe the situation. Reframing and explaining how a damaged item saved the potential homeowners a future headache can alleviate the hostility the buyer may feel. A potential buyer is more excited about purchasing the home and is not considering some of the safety concerns that may be lurking through a home inspection. That is why it is our job to visually inspect and verify the functionality of the home systems to keep the potential buyers safe.
Research & Writing Assignment:
Article: Home Inspector Ethics: Why Not Pay to Be on Brokers’ Lists?
What I learned: To surmise this article, paying to be on a brokers list opens the broker/real estate agent up into a ton of liability and legal risk. As certified home inspectors, most of us do our best in discovering deficiencies and hazardous conditions in a home. But because there will always be a human element to inspecting, it is inevitable that we may miss something, make a mistake or unintentionally damage something. Therefore, we are required to carry Errors and Omission Insurance and General Liability Insurance (in most cases) in the event one of these errors have costly ramifications. Our insurance does not cover the agent/broker who required us to pay to play to be on their referral list.
Although an unhappy homeowner and a trigger-happy fingered attorney would find any reason to sue everyone involved in the real estate transaction; adding monetary gain in the referral process can bring into question the realtors motivation for using that preferred inspector. One could now argue; was there referral based on their independent judgment and the proven track record of the inspector or was it solely for monetary gain?
Research & Writing Assignment:
A client, who was a real estate agent, purchased a house and wanted to turn it quickly asked that I focus on on the major components and not report broken appliances and “just make sure it is not falling down”. I answered that my report will reflect everything I observe.
Research & Writing Assignment:
I read the article on “avoiding lawsuits”. I learned that as inspectors that we are to never refer to ourselves as "experts but as “specialists”. The law now holds inspectors to the words we use in our reports and marketing so we must be very careful and choose our wisely.
Research & Writing Assignment:
A home inspector is not supposed to offer a buyer, any deficiencies observed in a house as a result of inspection. The home inspector cannot offer any repair work to the buyer for at least 12 months after the date of inspection is over.