Possible Legal issue or Insurance claim

I’m relatively new to the business but not to the trade. I have an issue where a point of SOP was missed on a report and although I believe there were some circumstances that caused the point to be missed as to the report, it was not on there. What is the normal course of action? Send them to insurance?

Steven, welcome to our forum!..Enjoy! :smile:

Hold on Steven.

First of all be careful what you post.
Take careful notes on what the complaint is and see if your client will talk to you. Try to address as best as you can but admit no mistake until you have a clear picture of whats what.
Only then can you proceed with whether this is an insurance claim or not.
Perhaps your client is simply unhappy and wants you to heat them out.

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To get an accurate answer, it would be helpful to get specific, with pictures, if you have them, Steven.

^^^^^ Scott gave you one good advice above. ^^^^^

You can go to “Members Only section”, if that will help you.

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If someone has a standard of practice in the state that requires all plumbing material to be identified and there was galvanized piping present, but was not put in the report and that buyer bought the house and recognized diminished flow at the faucets, is that a legal or insurance issue? Omission? Also, say for instance functional flow was left off the report as well.

That might help. Thought i was in members only.

Errors & Omission Insurance. Hypothetically, if there a demand for $, one contacts their ins. agent.

I wouldn’t say so much a demand, but pretty close to one.

I’m not at home right now so my pics are not available.


General Inspection Topics

Legislation, Licensing, Ethics & Legal Issues
“These general inspection discussions are visible to everyone.”

Thanks, I see that now.

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I’m starting a new thread in members only.

Its a great thing to conduct inspections conscientiously Steven.

I would check on this with others, as you are and then proceed. Larry is a great source with years of experience.
Just don’t be quick to hand back money unless the situation dictates it.

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IMHO - There are a lot of factors. “The is never an Issue until there is a Problem”. Now what can be proved becomes really important. Did diminished flow exist at the time, was it identified in report? Was anything discussed/shared with client about older homes and typical concerns? I guess it comes down to good contracts and good reports, because even if you did the best job possible without any errors, and something does go wrong, people immediately start looking for someone to PAY. What you admit to, and even being a nice guy and trying to help, can incur implied liability. GL Theo

If galvanized was present and NOT identified that could be a serious issue. To start if galvanized is present the plumbing would likely be at least 55-60 Yrs or older. Its also well known that at its age this type of piping becomes deteriorated (rots from the inside outward, and collects mineral deposits inside the pipe often clogging them). Partial OR complete replacement has usually either already been done OR will need to be done soon because the pipes will leak and/or stop up.

IF nothing was said warning the client of this YOU could get slammed relatively easily

AND if your SoP in your state requires identifying it AND you did’t … They could slam you there also

In my area most homes are on slabs and more often than not all I can see are what is stubbed out of the wall. On older homes that have galvanized pipe I will most likely see that coming out of the wall but since plastic and or even copper has replaced the older Galvanized, All I’m going to see are Copper stub outs…And therefor a lot of my reports will have words like “Appears to be” or “unknown, only copper stub-outs visible”. I try like heck if an older home, or if built during the PB years to see if I can fish my borescope camera behind a plumbing escutcheon plate (I would say 90% of all homes built here during those PB years are going to have PB)…But some times I just can’t identify and make it known with statements like, “Not readily viewable for identification”… Many time I could guess, but not a bad idea just to say “I don’t Know”

Also I make a point of if I do identify a type, I have a photo backing it up. and just because you see one type does not mean there are all kinds of other material used since the original was put in. In short, Report only what you see and photograph what you see to CYA.