Order this free book now. "An Opinon on Performance is Mandatory" by George Wells.

[Nick Gromicko]

http://www.nachi.org/opinion2007.htm

[William J. Decker]

Good job. I would add to it the legal situation (with regards to "expert" legal status in Illinois. In short, if you are State licensed, you are, de facto and de jure (in fact and in law) a legal expert witness).

I, and it is require by state law in Illinois, call things out according to "current construction standards", i.e. (acording to my lawyer, who is the most informed and educated lawyer in this state about home inspection law) the current NATIONAL standards (IRC, IBC, NEC, etc).

Remember, we are no code inspectors (i.e. local AHJ codes, which change all the time and often lag behind the most current national standards) and we cannot REQUIRE fixes. We serve the client and inform them according to the most current NATIONAL standards, especially when it comes to issues of safety.

I could give a friggin dang about what the local codies or Realtors think. I serve the client and no one else.

The local, county or state officials always seem to be able to hide behind the liability limits, but HIs cannot assume that the state will pay their legal bills. Nor can they assume that the client will not get hurt.

In our state, recent court rulings have found that local code inspectors have NO liability for the house not being is "substantial' compliance with local codes. Also, in out state, each local municipality (over a certain population) has the right to set their own local code requirements.

In the area I work in, there are 92 different AHJs, each with their own codes.

Go figure.

It it is bad, especially if it unsafe, call it out.

Hope this helps;