Morning Call

[Brian E. Kelly]

Me> hello dwelling doctors Inspctions

Woman< yes your company did an inspection for us and our garage door is broken, the Spring is Broken and when we moved in recently it was very difficult. What are you going to do about it?

Me> Really, what was the property address?

W< address

M> Give me a minute and I will look that up. What does it say in the report about the Garage?

W< Nothing

M> really? nothing? Oh ya so and so street,,,, (looking at report cover page of the house with the Garage door open). I am looking at the report now and see the house with the Garage door open??
Did you look at that? I also see in the Section on Garage that the door was working properly at the time of the inspection?

I am sure you said there was nothing mentioned in the report about the garage door?

W< Well I really cant tell from the pciture, and the report does not say the spring was broken. So what are you going to do about it?

> Not much I can do, the Garage door opened at the time of the Inspection and was working. Terribly sorry to hear about your broken Garage Door.

Silence.....

dial tone...............................

Luckily she called me first and not some out of work inspector that might believe here story as she told it, and then wind her all up about who knows what.

[Christopher Currins]

Pictures are nice. I hope that's the last you here from her.

[Ed Bancroft]

Yep, all you can do is say " sorry about your luck".
It worked at inspection, now it does not!
At most I would go back thru file photos and sent additional pics if they wanted.

Sorta like a call when the lady said "the little red light on my stove takes too long to go out when I turn the burner off"
You know you are not convince her otherwise.

[Brian E. Kelly]

Originally Posted by ccurrins

Pictures are nice. I hope that's the last you here from her.

It will be, once I pulled the report up, I remebered it all. Her husband met me at the inspection and we both went in and out of the Garage.

But I will now probably Open the Garage Door first before I take the report cover page picture in the future.

[Christopher Currins]

Originally Posted by bkelly2

But I will now probably Open the Garage Door first before I take the report cover page picture in the future.

That's a good idea. You can never be too careful at protecting you ***

[Jeffrey R. Jonas]

Originally Posted by ccurrins

You can never be too careful at protecting you ***

That is why I always take my Report cover photo immediately when I arrive. The door is almost always closed.

While performing the garage inspection, I open the door(s) and take a slab photo from outside.

I always take a photo of the garage door springs, to: 1) show if they are broken or not, and 2) to show if they have a safety cable or not (if they are the older style).

This shows that I viewed the doors in both open and closed positions. None of this "The doors were open when we arrived, and you never closed (or open) them to check" crap!

[Brian E. Kelly]

Originally Posted by jjonas

That is why I always take my Report cover photo immediately when I arrive. The door is almost always closed.

While performing the garage inspection, I open the door(s) and take a slab photo from outside.

I always take a photo of the garage door springs, to: 1) show if they are broken or not, and 2) to show if they have a safety cable or not (if they are the older style).

This shows that I viewed the doors in both open and closed positions. None of this "The doors were open when we arrived, and you never closed (or open) them to check" crap!

I may adopt this plan and take an open door pic from now on.

[ROBERT V. YOUNG]

Originally Posted by bkelly2

I may adopt this plan and take an open door pic from now on.

I am taking to that plain for my garage inspections, it truly makes sense.
Good one JJ.

[Jeffrey R. Jonas]

Originally Posted by ryoung7

I am taking to that plain for my garage inspections, it truly makes sense.
Good one JJ.

[Bob Elliott]

I am telling you guys right now that I always do a speed up video through the whole place to cover any pictures I may have missed.
You can always freeze frame if needed with a good HD video.

I bet most of us take the slab picture from outside just because It gives you a good Broad view anyway but showing door is open is another good reason.Glad it was mentioned by both of you.

[ROBERT V. YOUNG]

I am just surprised to see that people come after inspectors after they inspected the home. I use they meaning they are inspecting to see what you broke?
Its through visual means and one should be taking photo,s or video's ab BOB points out.
do they not understand that you have proof or is it the ''blame it one someone'' mentality, or the worst lets get something fixed for free.
I ask this because I own a facade restoration business, been in at least 1000 homes , bending, breaking and not once did someone come at me because they wanted to extract time, services or money due to something that broke in the home or places that I had been while on the job.
I will pay attention.

[ROBERT V. YOUNG]

Originally Posted by belliott

I am telling you guys right now that I always do a speed up video through the whole place to cover any pictures I may have missed.
You can always freeze frame if needed with a good HD video.

I bet most of us take the slab picture from outside just because It gives you a good Broad view anyway but showing door is open is another good reason.Glad it was mentioned by both of you.

Bob further explain about the taking a video please.
I thought of the concept and was interested in what should I do and how much time ,every room, zoom in on what, and will you also take photo's of important items say''furnace or electrical panel when front is off'' for ability for better blow up or finer resolution.

[Chuck Evans]

What you did was fine, but there is another tact that you could have taken that might have left her feeling more like you were her advocate.

You could have explained that garage door lift springs do break periodically, usually without warning. When we inspected the house, we checked the door and springs and they were working normally at that time. If the spring was broken when you took possession of the house, you should talk to the seller. The seller is required to maintain the house and deliver it at closing in the same condition it was in at the time of sale. We know that it was working at the time of sale because your husband was with me when we checked it and we have photographs of it in both open and closed positions. If the spring broke prior to closing, the seller should have repaired it. If it broke after you took possession of the house, then it's one of those normal maintenance items that comes with home ownership. If you like, I can stop by and let you know what needs to be done to repair it properly...

Sometimes they just want someone to hear them out and tell them what needs to be done. It's always best to try not to leave your client unhappy - they will talk about you one way or another.

[Brian E. Kelly]

Originally Posted by cevans

What you did was fine, but there is another tact that you could have taken that might have left her feeling more like you were her advocate.

You could have explained that garage door lift springs do break periodically, usually without warning. When we inspected the house, we checked the door and springs and they were working normally at that time. If the spring was broken when you took possession of the house, you should talk to the seller. The seller is required to maintain the house and deliver it at closing in the same condition it was in at the time of sale. We know that it was working at the time of sale because your husband was with me when we checked it and we have photographs of it in both open and closed positions. If the spring broke prior to closing, the seller should have repaired it. If it broke after you took possession of the house, then it's one of those normal maintenance items that comes with home ownership. If you like, I can stop by and let you know what needs to be done to repair it properly...

Sometimes they just want someone to hear them out and tell them what needs to be done. It's always best to try not to leave your client unhappy - they will talk about you one way or another.

I did tell her all of that Chuck, but just posted the readers digest version here.

And having done this long enough, what she wanted was a "Free" Repair.

[Mark E. Glowczynski]

I guess it's a good idea to take generalized pictures of rooms and such, not including the defect pictures. Just for reasons like this.