Simon,
I don’t remember any specific pre-written comments but there were inspectors posting complaints in the InterNACHI message board about problems they were having because they had used pre-written comments from their software.
All too often, inspectors put stuff in the reports that aren’t in any way related to the house that was inspected. It isn’t that there is anything wrong with the pre-written comments as they are written. The problem is that they don’t make sense within the context of the inspection and inspectors aren’t modifying them to fit the inspection.
We had statement alongs the lines of “The (InterNACHI/NAHI/ASHI/Your State) Standards of practice …” The idea was that the inspector would modify it to identify which SOP he was following. We started seeing our customers, and I mean a lot of them, putting that statement in their reports exactly as we had it. They were putting the statement in their reports without even reading it. We changed it to something completely generic.
There are many comments that might be similar from one inspection to another but need to be modified to fit that particular inspection. Inspectors often leave comments in a generic form that is confusing at best.
If you want some cheap entertainment, all you have to do is visit home inspector websites and read some of the sample reports. The sad thing is that inspectors who are nearly functionally illiterate are proud of their reports. You can tell when they are using pre-written stuff because the pre-written comments don’t match their writing style.
I had one customer who was functionally illiterate. I tried get him to switch to a checklist report. He was using our pre-written comments but he couldn’t read well enough to know what they said. He kept coming to me for help but teaching someone to read and write is beyond coaching in report writing. He eventually got a job as another inspector’s helper. The last time I saw him was at a conference. He told me how relieved he was that he no longer had to write reports.
We would all benefit if there were more inspectors using checklists. I do a lot of work for lawyers and insurance companies. I’ve been asked many times to interpret something a home inspector has written. I’ve been with lawyers when they almost fell out of their chair laughing at stuff inspectors put in reports.
I cover this in more detail in my book “How to Write a Better Home Inspection Report.
