Inspection Agreements

[Patricia Balio]

Does anyone have any thoughts on the residential inspection agreement which NACHI uses versus the CREIA inspection agreement? Apparently, the CREIA agreement provides more language regarding the Standards of Practice specific to California which NACHI does not. Unless I am missing some pertinent info, does anyone have any suggestions or comments that will be helpful?

[Nick Gromicko]

InterNACHI's agreement was built and tweaked for more than a decade to withstand lawsuits in tough states like California and New Jersey... and it has. Furthermore, no court in any state or province has ever thrown out a single clause. It has withstood the test of time.


www.nachi.org/documents.htm

[Patricia Balio]

Thank you Nick. What about additional disclaimers for mold, radon, plumbing and electrical issues. Are disclaimer's necessary? I know that when I performed inspections in Hawaii the mold issue was a major point in which deficiencies were disclosed in the inspection report with a disclaimer.

[Nick Gromicko]

I'd use the mold and radon waivers if I were in biz today. But not just for liability limiting, but to up-sell the services.

There is nothing like telling your client that you think there is a mold issue in the basement or a radon issue in the area, then asking the client to sign the mold and radon waivers stating that you recommended testing and the client declined to take your recommendation.

Makes them think twice about not having the tests performed.