We are selling a home that has been rehabed and the inspector said the home was unlivable and should be demolished. This guy is an obvious idiot and he cost us our contract. Can we hold him responsable if we make less money on the next offer? We have our own report that states the house is fine.
Hopper
Sounds like someone is out to get you??? Very fishy.
In our state, if a state licensed inspector goes through your place and finds items wrong, by law those have to become disclosures. However, a lot of inspectors are “good ol’ boys” with the RE Agents and will go thru crummy homes and say everything is fine, except you need a GFI here and there. Not all inspectors are bad, some are very good but one needs to do some homework to make sure they are completely on your side.
Let us know how it turns out.
this is beyond his scope to make such a judgement; something is strange. I would talk to the owner of the firm and/or you local inspector’s board/professional society…something is very strange.
not much you can do about.
In some lights it could be considered slander if you want to get lawyered up and go after him. Talk to an experience RE atty; they might have some good thoughts on how to handle it.
A) What state are you in?
B) Was it a home inspector or a city inspector?
C) Who hired the inspector,you,the buyer , the mortgage co. fo rthe buyer?
D) Who did the rehab?Were they licensed to do the work? Does the work meet the local code standards?
HMMMMMMMMMMMMM
We just sold a house and the buyer required a home inspection and the buyer signed off after the inspection. 1/2 hour before closing the buyer called our Realtor and asked us to meet him at the home. He was concerned about the sump pumps draining into the sewer. Now he wanted them to drain outside. I asked how much he thought it would cost him to have a contractor do it and he said $1,000. His Realtor laughed at him. I told him that I would do it the next morning. I asked why the ‘Home Inpector didnt’ say anything about it’. He said that he had passed the ‘Home Inspectors Test’ and that he was the ‘Home inspector’. He agreed that I would do it the next day and we closed. I laughed after the fact but it did irritate me.
"Who is the inspector and what are his credentials’?
good luck!
NDI
NDI, great experience…thanks for sharing, we can all learn from that…that’s a new one on me. The “do it yourself inspector”.
I’m in Florida.The buyers are in California and the inspector was hired by their lender. We requested the inspection report but he has not complied with our request. I would love to exspose him for the fraud he is! Does the law require him to had over the inspection? Thanks to everyone that has replied!
Hopper
I would say that you you could keep thier deposit until they give you a copy of the report? I would guess that they could get out of the purchase contract because of the ‘Home Inspection Clause’ but you should have the right to know what they say is wrong. Just my opinion!
This brings up another subject on I don’t think that a $500 deposit on a house is enough in this day and age. It costs more than that to carry a if you have a house tied up in a contract and it fails to close.
Good Luck!
NDI
Typically as the buyer is the one who paid for the inspection report, he is technically the owner of the report and can do whatever he likes with it including not giving you a copy. However it’s usually in the buyer’s interest to give you a copy because by law you have to disclose any defects disclosed to you to the next buyer so it gives the buyer some additional leverage when negotiating the P&S. Typically in the offer it will say that they have to give written notice or somehow notify you officially if they’re going to withdraw the offer based on that contingency. If they don’t perform, you get to keep the offer money. Did they?
Also around here the standard amount on an offer is $1k but of course it doesn’t matter what the amount is if the buyer withdraws due to a home inspection contingency.
Their deposit was $500 and my realtor said they pulled out.The house was an As-Is buy with the right to inspect. I agree that the deposit should be alot more these days. I’m in an area where there isn’t alot of affordable housing. People are quick to make an offer on reasonable priced places and then want out if something else comes about. Well I think I may have another contract on it so hopefully everything will go well.
Hopper
Sounds like the inspection was a handy way for them to back out - very suspect given the fact that they won’t show it to you.
In Texas, inspectors are licensed through the Texas Real Estate Commission, and they are pretty clear as far as what inspectors can and can’t do. Inspectors are not allowed to do any repairs to the property, period. An inspector also should not tell a client “not” to buy a house or that it needs to be “demolished.” These types of things can be reported to TREC as they are violations. Anytime I do an inspection, I tell people that I don’t want to know the price or the conditions of the sale. This keeps me from ever being accused of leaning one way or the other as far as the inspection goes. An inspector should always look at the property as it is. He should tell you what is wrong and what isn’t. As far as whether to proceed or what they should ask for from the seller, the inspector should direct the client to discuss it with their agent. That’s what their agent is their for. Not to mention that agents have the experience in dealing with negotiations with potential repair issues.
Frankinspectors (as I like to call them because they try to scare the heck out of you by making every little detail seem monstrous) give inspectors a bad name. Life works in a circle though. Those inspectors don’t last long in this business.
Lee Warren
Their realtor called mine and said the house failed inspection and should be demolished. Their realtor never gave written notice to cancle like it says in the contract. We could make them buy the house but all we really want is to know who did the inspection. The realtor wont tell us who it is and she hasn’t given us the report either. Should I call her broker and file a complaint with them? what should be my next step?
Hopper
They told you it “failed,” I’m wondering what exactly that means. If I owned the property I would want to know WHY! What caused it to fail? Maybe they aren’t authorized to disclose the inspector, but they could certainly black out the name and give the report.
My guess is that they never actually hired an inspector and wanted out without losing their earnest money.
Wow, I just thought of something great (when selling). Insert a clause in the new buyer’s inspection contingency that requires a copy of the inspection report if they choose to exercise the contingency.
Two things real quick. Inspectors should be giving a pass or fail rating unless they are a code inspector that is dealing with a new house. If an inspector sees something that should be address, it is listed as “in need of repair.” Big difference between that and failed.
Second, be careful of asking for a copy of the inspection report if you are the seller. The inspector may find things that you didn’t know about or didn’t want to. Also, once you have that report, as a seller you must disclose everything in it on a new seller’s disclosure. You might just be opening up a bigger can of worms than you want to.
I have had listing agents call me about previous inspections to explain things. I had one call me the other day because the buyer had stated that I found something in the report that caused them concern. When the seller asked me about it, I clarified what the exact issue was with the property. Turns out that the buyer saw something in the property that he wanted the seller to fix. He used me as an excuse to scare the seller into doing it. The reality was that it was an issue that had nothing to do with the inspection and wasn’t even on the report. I keep a file for every inspection that I do. Not only do I keep a copy of the final inspection report, but I also keep a copy of all my hand written notes that I take when I am at the property. It was times like that that made me glad I did. With inspectors, liability can be a huge issue if you don’t properly protect yourself. Agents, buyers, and sellers have used inspectors as easy marks to get what they want. If they won’t show you the report, try calling their broker directly and explaining the situation. The report is the property of the client (buyer) and not the agent.
Lee Warren