Under Attack

[Dan Bowers, CMI]

I'm always amazed at the mentality of those of us that think a home inspector should function at a different level than the termite inspector, mold inspector, radon inspector, etc. It sounds good but doesn't really hold water.

Its also getting boring thinking about how you can do this by simply having a separate legal entity. Done for years by members ASHI, NACHI, NAHI and even engineering companies I know.

Nick, as you and I both know, your thought on the guy in your area with the roof depends on the wording of the RE Contract in his area. In my area, the RE Contract states the buyer can use an inspector of their choice AND if there is anything not disclosed or excluded by the seller that shows up in the report, the buyer can renegotiate price, terms, repairs OR walk.

At that point it gets down to who cares the most. Does the seller want to sell more than the buyer wants to buy.

[Nick Gromicko]

In PA the law agrees that one can hire any inspector one wants, however if one wants to negotiate on the basis of that report then a copy of the report must be given to the seller and the report must be generated impartially (by an inspector who is not offering repair services for 12 months).

We don't have licensing in PA yet, but this law exists and is just as much a law as a licensing law would be.

The question is why did PA legislators, despite refusing to create licensing, still go out of their way to protect the impartiality of an inspection for both buyer and seller? The answer is because anything less is unethical.

[Geraldo Gual]

wow!!

[Dan Bowers, CMI]

I think North Carolina has a good Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. A past National ASHI President and quite a few solid ASHI Members helped get those passed. Check them out and you'll discover something thats not there.