Use A Old Home Inspection Report?

Beware Of The Consequences!

The offer has been made and accepted. Now it's time to schedule a Pacific West Home Inspection. The home inspection day comes, the complete home inspection experience is finished, and a report is delivered to the prospective buyer and, sometimes unknowingly, the buyer's agent. A couple of days later, the deal falls through. It may have been some of the items found during the inspection, change in the buyer's financial circumstances, or a myriad of other reasons. You better than anyone know how many things can kill a deal at the last minute!

But wait, a copy of the inspection report was given to the listing agent unknowingly and the selling agent still has a copy.

Sometime later, along comes another buyer for the same property. It's time for the listing or selling agent to be a hero and save the new buyer some money. Hey, you've got the old inspection report. Let's just hand that to the new buyer and save them some money. You can be the Hero or Heroine.

Well, no, not really. You can be the Goat!  Presuming of course that it's not even worse and you're selling it to them. (Yes, I've seen that happen.) You're sticking your liability out there instead of the home inspector's liability.

The home inspection experience is a confidential transaction between the home inspector and the person who purchased the report by law. The home inspector is liable only to the person who purchased the complete home inspection experience and report, not the other people that received a copy of the report from an agent.

More importantly, the home inspection experience doesn't just consist of the report. It also consists of the conversation and observations exchanged between the parties at the inspection.  That's the complete home inspection experience.

And, things change, sometimes in just a heartbeat, sometimes over days. Roots crack foundations, a tree limb falls through the roof, an electrical wire comes loose or overheats, a hidden plumbing leak starts, a floor joist cracks, and the furnace fails. The list could go on and on. It's kind of like that tire on your car. It was fine when you drove the car home but flat the next morning (hopefully it didn't go flat while you were driving). Things change in a house the same way, in only an instant.

However, you told the new buyer everything was fine. Hey, here's the inspection report saying so. But you didn't tell the new buyer about things changing and, most likely didn't tell them that the previous home inspection report was just a snapshot in time (missing the conversation and observations exchanged between the parties) at the time the inspection was performed. Hopefully you didn't just give them the report summary.

If you're the type to do this, you probably also didn't tell them the home inspector doesn't bear any liability to them either. The liability is contracted between the original client and the home inspector.

Now the new buyer has moved in and noticed one of those "things that change in a heartbeat", like the furnace not providing any heat on move in day. Who is he going after for his recourse?  Maybe the inspector?  But wait, the home inspector doesn't have any liability contracted with this person. The inspection and report had a correct "snapshot in time" when it was done and there is no contracted liability.

Well, call the agent! That's who they got the report from, if they got the full report instead of just the summary.

Now the home buyer is mad at you and wants you to pay for his "thing that changed in a heartbeat". Likely the original client will now find out what you've done with their report and they'll be mad at you too!

Is this really how you want it to happen?

Only you can choose what level of risk you want to live with and how well you serve your client.