Need legal advice

I’ll be blunt:

You failed to advise them that the house had no source of heat, misidentified the type of heating system installed, and failed to report the gutted gas furnace.

Now you need to pay the cost to cure this defect, or pay whatever your contract states. The buyer may not accept twice the fee refunded, but, who knows.

I imagine this rooftop gas pack should have had visible signs of “something’s not right” and a quick look inside the unit would have revealed the cobbled-together A/C system.

We all make mistakes, this will likely be the very last time you make this type of error.

Dom.

In identifying the heat pump, was there an emergency heat setting on the thermostat?

Sorry to hear about this Mary Ann, I hope it gets resolved quickly for all concerned.
I was taught not to run furnaces in the summer but after consulting with many HVAC guys I was told that there would be no problems if it was operated for a brief period.
What do other inspectors do, at the very least you should have visually inspected the inside of the unit?
This topic has been discussed before so maybe our HVAC experts can chime in so that this mistake doesn’t happen again.
Good luck
Derek

Also, I’ve researched this before and have never found an article saying you shouldn’t test a furnace in the summer although I was taught that you shouldn’t. Could someone please post a link if you have one.

I always tested the furnace.
When it’s hot I tried to keep it as short as possible.
I’d hate to get called in November for a furnace that I didn’t try to operate in June.

Offer to pay only the insp fee back and get a release statement. Point out that you mentioned in the report about the data plate and you stated that you recommend review.
I don’t open units but I do run heat in the summer.

James,

Here in AZ not all Heat Pumps have supplementary heat strips as emergency heat. I see more without than with.
Thermostats just have Fan, Heat, cool