I thought it might be useful to start a thread on the message board related to the Reporthost lawsuit and inspector templates being deleted. There isn’t much detailed info from Spectora and of course they are very busy and unreachable currently so if anybody here has updates to share have at it. For the record we’re one of the companies that never used reporthost or their templates/comments but somehow two of our templates have been flagged for deletion. Our Pre-drywall template for instance has been completely written by us in the field as we go. The whole thing smacks of trying to patent thermal inspections in homes…
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I was notified about two of my templates as well. And I’m not sure I’ve ever even heard of Report Host, lol.
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Just curious Ryan,
If Spectora got hacked, or just went away, would you lose all your templates or do you keep copies of them as a back-up just in case?
Or does Spectora consider your templates their proprietary property?
Here’s an interesting tidbit I just found, the comment that was flagged for us came from the Internachi Residential template (and for the record we have a better comment than this, it was leftover and just hanging out at the bottom of the list).
Under crawlspaces, Standing Water:
“Observed signs that standing water may have been present on basement floor. Recommend a qualified contractor evaluate and find potential source of moisture.”
So now the question is did Internachi pull their comment from reporthost? If so they’ve screwed a lot of inspectors…
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I received this notification this morning as well but I didn’t see which templates of mine were of concern. Did I miss this somewhere?
The email is not well written. The template(s) in question are in there along with a link to export it to a spreadsheet. What they left out of the email is that the infringing comment(s) will be highlighted in yellow. Write a new narrative there and create a new template from the spreadsheet .
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Thanks Michael!
Thanks for that info Michael!
Here’s the email I got…
Template Deletions - ACTION REQUIRED
Spectora was recently engaged in litigation with ReportHost, which concerned ReportHost’s claims that inspectors on the Spectora platform incorporated and used ReportHost’s comment language in Spectora reports. While Spectora disputed those claims, we have chosen to settle the matter and protect our customers.
You are receiving this message because one or more of your templates or reports have been flagged and must be deleted pursuant to the litigation resolution.
These deletions will occur on November 1st, 2023.
- For all templates scheduled for deletion, we will provide a new template shell, which will help you create a new template with new comment text that is created by you. It is important that you have authored or appropriately licensed every comment in your template. How to import a template from a spreadsheet.
- INFOTEC Inspection Template
- INFOTEC Mold Template (Basement)
- Alternatively, you can visit Spectora’s Template Center to find a new replacement template. How to find additional templates.
- After November 27th, any reports generated from a deleted template will no longer be accessible to you or your clients via the Spectora platform or a direct URL. However, if for any reason your customer requires a copy of a deleted report, they may request a PDF copy from us directly at info@spectora.com (Old report links will lead to a page with instructions to contact us as well.) This will only apply to the deleted reports, and will not be the process for reports created from any new or replacement templates, which will remain available as they always have been.
In order for a smooth transition, you must:
- Find or create a suitable replacement template as soon as possible and start scheduling inspections using it instead of the above-mentioned template(s).
- Replace use of this template in your Services setup prior to November 1.
- If you are an ISN user, replace this template in your ISN template mappings prior to November 1.
- If any sample reports were affected, find a suitable replacement sample report prior to November 1.
- If you host your website with Spectora and link to your sample reports there, submit a website edit to swap the links.
Timeline:
- November 1st - Identified templates, and any sample reports generated using those templates, will be removed from our systems.
- Nov 1st - 27th - you will not be able to use the deleted templates, but reports made using these templates will still be accessible normally to minimize disruption to your clients in the middle of the home-buying process.
- November 27th - All reports using the deleted templates will be rendered inaccessible to you, and can only be accessed by clients via writing in to us. Prior links will provide instructions.
Let us know anything we can assist you with.
What? Huh?
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Interestingly Spectora has starter templates up on their website that still have the flagged content.
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Evidently Report Host thinks their narratives are special or something, lol. I have no idea yet which of “their” narratives somehow made it’s way into my template, but it won’t be anything that I have ever used as all of mine are custom. But, I have probably a few stragglers hanging around deep at the bottom from when I started out with the NACHI template or something.
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Yeah yeah, that is what they all say! 
Just kidding. Other software companies also have narratives that come with their software. I guess at least one is interested in making this proprietary. I sorta get it. I am sure Kenton would not want people not paying for his narratives.
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This email is causing me immense stress,
I’ve never heard of Report host. The rollout of this is horrendous. They have responded that my template is okay but that I still need to delete it because it “used to have” flagged comments.
They are also restricting access to all past reports. That’s 1000s of our reports that are going to be restricted.
And I paid Kenton for our comments of his we use!!
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Wow, I hope you have back-ups. I can see how distressing this is. I am using Home Gauge, are we next?
Good, and I am sure you would have been happy to pay for any narratives/templates as needed had you been aware.
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I went and looked at my export quick. Here is the only narrative flagged. Is this a narrative that someone could (or would even want to) copyright? 
And, I didn’t even know I had this narrative.
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Yes, I have backups of all reports. But losing access to the web platform sucks.
I have 1000s of hours writing my comments and templates, but Kenton was great early on to get my creative juices flowing.
I think damages are being done to the industry and inspectors with this cluster.
Both by Spectora and Reporthost (whomever they are??)
How proprietary can
“it’s broken, you should fix it, call a professional to fix it” be?
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I have nothing flagged on mine and they are still deleting it.
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I read on FB this morning that Spectora settled with ReportHost so I guess part of that is yanking some/all comments. My MS Word document comment bank just keeps looking better 
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