I have a seller’s agent from a property that I inspected a few weeks ago who is giving out my report to new potential buyers without my permission or the permission of the previous potential buyer/my customer. How is this typically handled? I know an inspection report is confidential and is not supposed to be given out without the person’s permission.
Welcome Austin!
Hopefully in your report, you have a disclaimer that states the report is only intended for the use of your client and exclusive only to the time of your inspection.
Your agreement should be further protection on who was privy to the report. If you are covered there, a “nice” email to the agent to further not share and why is recommended.
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Curious, how did you find out?
The new potential buyer contacted me and asked if I could go over the report with them.
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And what did you tell them?
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I said not without the previous buyers/the person who actually paid for the reports permission. The previous buyer said she did not give them permission to share it.
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I wouldn’t talk about it even with their permission.
No idea what they are going to do with the information, or data.
They can hire you or hire another qualified inspector to help them, either way works for me.
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I wouldn’t waste time trying to stop agents from passing the report around to whoever they want. But if anyone but your client, their agent, or a repair person calls wanting to discuss it, I would decline.
If I know that my client has walked away from the deal, I may consider discussing the report with a new buyer if my original client gives me permission, and after the new buyer pays me a consultation fee.
In my experience, I can usually talk them into a new full home inspection though. And that is really the best thing for them.
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They also told the new buyer and buyers agent that they had permission to use her report as well.
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Good for them…but I don’t want to get peppered with follow-up questions from people that didn’t pay me or even know me, nor do I want to have liability from someone later claiming “but you said on the phone…”
Seems to be an unbalanced/unfair situation to me.
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Yeah forsure
This exactly… we’ll never stop it from happening. Best we can do is have wording on the report that the report is not to be used by anyone other than the purchaser of the service. This is actually required in Oregon, presumably due to others getting it and then trying to take some action against the inspector.
And, as Ryan says, don’t discuss with anyone else… I don’t care about permission. I’m paid to work for the buyer. If it’s not them or someone working directly on their behalf (agent, etc.) my lips are sealed. Repair people working on their behalf I’ll try to help out as well but that one gets tricky since those guys often don’t know who they are working for. It’s common for the seller to hire people to fix things on the report that came up and my client walked.
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Don’t let it bother you.
Talk soft and write hard. Everything falls into place.
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Your best response is to tell them the truth.
Your home inspection report is a record of your observations of the home and its system at the time and date you were present on the property to observe them.
Every item in your report is subject to change (in type, model, use, and condition) from the moment you closed the door behind you. Accordingly, your report is not a reliable source of information regarding the current condition of the home, and you disclaim its accuracy or relevancy to anyone attempting to draw conclusions from it regarding the present condition of the home and you strongly recommend that it not be used by any potential buyer.
You might add that you cannot verify that the report is complete or that information that it originally contained has not been changed.
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In that case, the truth isn’t that we think things might have changed, especially when it is within a few weeks or even days of the original inspection.
The truth is that we should not be discussing the report with someone who didn’t pay for it (or their representative). The truth is that if you want an inspection, you will have to pay me for it and I will do one for you.
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We’ll have to agree to disagree.
I think both statements are true.
The home conditions may have changed for better or worse since the inspection, and I’m not at liberty to discuss my findings with anyone but my client but I would certainly do a new inspection for the new buyer if they would hire me. I’ll make it clear that I have no responsibility to them for the accuracy of the report they copied.
Using this tactic I have not yet successfully won a second inspection. The allure of the free report vs. paying for a new report that will likely be very similar has not been an attractive offer to potential clients. But at least they are clear on the point that I owe them nothing.
And I would rather inspect a different home than offer a discount to inspect that home a second time.
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Think of it as advertising! If anyone calls just tell them that you can’t comment on that report due to the former client not giving permission and you would need to reinspect the property as items could have changed.
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Scott. I would change the wording from “reinspect” to “inspect” the property again. For some, the term “reinspect” would conjure up discount to the them. Your time means something even if they want to pick your brain.
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That’s not entirely accurate.
They do not necessarily need to, if the report was used by the Buyer in negotiations with the selling party, that copy becomes the property of the Seller.
Of course they did. The Sellers are required by law to provide DISCLOSURE of many facts regarding the current and historic condition of the property.
Why did your clients walk from the purchase? Assuming it was due to items listed in your report, it is not uncommon for Listing Agents to use the Inspection Report (or portions of it) for the new, Disclosure Statement which removes much of the liability from the sellers statement.
Failing to (potentially) be a complete copy of the report is a key factor, (other than copy-write infringement), when discussing this scenario with the new, unauthorized new buyer. Use these points to sell a new inspection. Note that oftentimes the Seller will not allow an inspection of the home as they “provided” their own version of an old inspection. Common sellers tactic in today’s marketplace!
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