Originally Posted By: jmyers
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Joe D.
I don't know who you were talking too but they are liars! I deny it, I was not even there that day.
I have to agree with Joe H. How successful you become in this business will be more dependent on how much effort you are going to put into it.
As with most of the area around here, it just keeps growing. The plus side of real estate is that no matter if it is a seller's market or a buyer's market the market is there, people will always need homes to live in.
The liability issue is a difficult one at best. Most inspectors limit their liability to the fee paid for the inspection. There are certain other things that you can do to limit your liability.
One of the most common mistakes that I have heard is to make recommendations on "how" to fix issues, this is not your job. Your job is to simply find them and report them.
Here is what happens. You observe and report the attached garage on a house is not up to current codes because the attic space between the house and garage are not separated by fire rated drywall. You recommend adding the drywall to the attic space to bring the house up to current code standards.
Here are the some of the problems that I have with this statement.
1. You are not a code enforcement official. While it is good that you are familiar with current codes you should never place yourself in the position to be anything but a lowly home inspector. When you start quoting codes, the attorney will maintain you placed yourself in that position and you should have found all code violations in this home, which you could not possibly do in a million years.
2. You recommended adding the fire rated drywall to the attic space. Now you are placing yourself in the position to be a contractor. Remember you are a lowly home inspector. So a contractor comes in and adds the fire rated drywall into the attic space just like you recommended. Later a fire destroys the house and one of the occupants is killed because the drywall was not properly installed. Another contractor gives an opinion that they garage area should have been drywalled instead of the attic space and there was no way the other contractor could have possibly made this installation safe, but this is the fix you recommended.
Here is the jest of what is being said here. Report exactly what you see, on the day of the inspection. If you see rust on the exterior of the heater, report rust on the exterior of the heater, no more.
Does that help?
Joe Myers
