Sewer Camera Inspections a must, Im getting sued!

[Brian E. Kelly]

Nonetheless, blockages will occur in the life of any system, but blockages in drainpipes, and particularly in main drainpipes, can be expensive to repair, and for this reason we recommend having them video-scanned

Keith Swift, thanks

[John Schmoe]

Look fellas this was not meant to be turned into a joke, and I am now sorry I even posted. I am a bit taken back by the hostility. I was just trying to save another Inspector from the same fate. I for obvious reason do not want to reveal who I am, or where Im located. Just though Id put this out there for those that think "It wont happen to me".

Apparently, It doesn't matter what you disclaim, If you don't recommend a sewer camera inspection you will get sued when the poop hits the fan. Dependant upon many variables some inspectors may win the case, and some may not. Simply put, in order to avoid being sued you need to recommend it.

An acquaintance of mine who is a Real Estate Lawyer basically told me:
You have to inform the customer(in writing) that specialized inspections exist, and the reasons why one should have the specialized inspections. You also have to state that failure to have these specialized inspections could later result in unseen costly repairs, and or damages due to failure. Therefore you recommend that they seek a Specialist for further investigation.

If you do not educate your customer you may be held liable.

If I had just recommended the sewer inspection they could not go after me!

Due to several different factors Ive been advised to settle this issue without litigation.

[Peter Doane]

Originally Posted by rbrady

I'm a skeptic.

It looks like a sewer camera salesman to me!

What gave you that idea??? His name? Joe Schmoe!?!?!?!

[Peter Doane]

Originally Posted by John Schmoe

Look fellas this was not meant to be turned into a joke, and I am now sorry I even posted. I am a bit taken back by the hostility. I was just trying to save another Inspector from the same fate. I for obvious reason do not want to reveal who I am, or where Im located. Just though Id put this out there for those that think "It wont happen to me".

Apparently, It doesn't matter what you disclaim, If you don't recommend a sewer camera inspection you will get sued when the poop hits the fan. Dependant upon many variables some inspectors may win the case, and some may not. Simply put, in order to avoid being sued you need to recommend it.

An acquaintance of mine who is a Real Estate Lawyer basically told me:
You have to inform the customer(in writing) that specialized inspections exist, and the reasons why one should have the specialized inspections. You also have to state that failure to have these specialized inspections could later result in unseen costly repairs, and or damages due to failure. Therefore you recommend that they seek a Specialist for further investigation.

If you do not educate your customer you may be held liable.

If I had just recommended the sewer inspection they could not go after me!

Due to several different factors Ive been advised to settle this issue without litigation.

John if you are an inspector, its hard for me to believe you don't belong to a national organization, like NACHI,.. you would have at least had a contract that stated WHAT you inspect and what you DON'T inspect... you could have, as I do, refer to the NACHI Standards of Practice in my agreement AND I also include it, in its entirety in the FULL inspection report. Along with proper verbiage to educate your clients through out the inspection report (Dave Valley had a great example of what he uses, almost similar to mine) this law suit probably would not have gotten off the ground.

[rbrady]

Originally Posted by pdoane

What gave you that idea??? His name? Joe Schmoe!?!?!?!

The title of the thread was my biggest tip-off!
His brother is a CEO of an oil company in Narobi and needs some help too.

[ldapkus]

My Lawyer is writing something up to the effect that lists all specialized inspections(chimney, sewer, geo, etc.) available to the customer.

An acquaintance of mine who is a Real Estate Lawyer basically told me:
You have to inform the customer(in writing) that specialized inspections

How many lawyers/acquaintances do you have working on this??
Has anybody else heard of this or is this something genuine???

[Christopher Currins]

Originally Posted by John Schmoe

Look fellas this was not meant to be turned into a joke, and I am now sorry I even posted. I am a bit taken back by the hostility. I was just trying to save another Inspector from the same fate. I for obvious reason do not want to reveal who I am, or where Im located. Just though Id put this out there for those that think "It wont happen to me".

Apparently, It doesn't matter what you disclaim, If you don't recommend a sewer camera inspection you will get sued when the poop hits the fan. Dependant upon many variables some inspectors may win the case, and some may not. Simply put, in order to avoid being sued you need to recommend it.

An acquaintance of mine who is a Real Estate Lawyer basically told me:
You have to inform the customer(in writing) that specialized inspections exist, and the reasons why one should have the specialized inspections. You also have to state that failure to have these specialized inspections could later result in unseen costly repairs, and or damages due to failure. Therefore you recommend that they seek a Specialist for further investigation.

If you do not educate your customer you may be held liable.

If I had just recommended the sewer inspection they could not go after me!

Due to several different factors Ive been advised to settle this issue without litigation.

John it does make a big difference where you live regarding lawsuits and also if you're in a licensed state with a SOP. Also I have a question....Do you carry E/O insurance? If you do, was your client aware of it before the lawsuit was filed?

[John Schmoe]

Originally Posted by ccurrins

John it does make a big difference where you live regarding lawsuits and also if you're in a licensed state with a SOP. Also I have a question....Do you carry E/O insurance? If you do, was your client aware of it before the lawsuit was filed?

I am a certified member of a statewide organization.

Yes, we have an SOP, and like this thread we also have several SOB's.

Yes, I have E/O..

To my knowledge the lawsuit has not been filed.
I was served with a notice of intent to sue, but an offer to settle. Does that make sense? It is a lot more in depth than that but thats all I'm willing to divulge.

I got my point across..
I'm done, enjoy...

[Christopher Currins]

Originally Posted by John Schmoe

I am a certified member of a statewide organization.

Yes, we have an SOP, and like this thread we also have several SOB's.

Yes, I have E/O..

To my knowledge the lawsuit has not been filed.
I was served with a notice of intent to sue, but an offer to settle. Does that make sense? It is a lot more in depth than that but thats all I'm willing to divulge.

I got my point across..
I'm done, enjoy...

First being a certified member of an organization and being licensed by a State and having to follow their SOP could make a lot of difference in a lawsuit. An offer to settle makes sense, there have been MANY threads on here and elsewhere concerning E/O and if you carry it the suggestions and urgency from lawyers to settle out of court if you are guilty are not. Reason, most insurance companies will settle and the lawyers are guaranteed some cash, if you don't carry it and they need to rely on your net worth, it would be much harder to collect. Honestly I feel the better lawyer would win in your case, being a visual inspection, unless somehow in your report you gave the impression there were no defects in the sewer lines. Also I do appreciate you posting your story.

[Jack L. Gilleland]

How many possible inspections are there. Personally, off the top of my head, I can think of ten, no, more than ten. Is it our job to notify the homeowner of all possible inspections. One more point, the contract to purchase, from the realtor lists many of the inspections (not all) and is usually in check off format so that time can be allocated for the inspections. Hmmmmmmmmm.

So if there are no visible leaks, do we cover our collective *****es by telling the homeowner about a possible IR scan?

[jconner]

So, what caused the actual failure, and how long was it after the inspection? (was this talked about yet?) I mean, it wouldn't matter one way or another if the pipe was inspected if the owner tried to flush a cat or shove a ham done the drain. We can't be held responsible for pure stupidity! If the sink didn't drain, and the toilet wouldn't flush, it should be in the report. Other wise, we can only do so much without "un-building" the house!

[Blaine Wiley]

I have never heard of someone losing or settling a lawsuit because further evaluation wasn't recommended on items that appeared to be functioning normally during the inspection. If that is the case you should be recommending that an appliance company come in and recheck all of the functioning appliances, a roofer come and check the roof for leakage, an electrician come in and check all wiring, etc.

We disclaim fireplaces and recommend a level II inspection not because they functioned normally during the inspection, but because we don't operate them and can't verify that they are working properly.

Granted, anyone can sue anyone for anything at anytime, and when the lawyer calls you, you have already lost. Yours however sounds like a case of the lawyer wanting his fee from your insurance company for easy work.

I'm not suspicious of the poster or his claim, but I am of his ambulance chaser, oops, attorney.

[David A. Andersen]

(was this talked about yet?)

No, and I don't think we need to have go there!

The fact of the matter is that anyone can sue you by getting a lawyer that watches science-fiction movies all night long.

Go to court some time. There is no reality going on there most of the time!
It's all about manipulation!

If this is in fact a real case it will probably take one to three years for some judge to listen to it (if ever). How much is this going to cost in legal fees? More than your client expects to receive!

If you listen to Keith Swift, nobody gets sued! It's all about the process of settlement. When you get caught up in crap like this your best bet is to get out with you are @ss anyway you can.

I spent over two years paying a lawyer to be mandated by the court to attend arbitration. All the other plaintiffs in the case except for the termite inspection company showed up pointing fingers and other directions. The termite company (get really pissed off) but came in with a solution to settle the situation. The real estate plaintiffs as well as myself just got drug into everything.

During arbitration my clients attorney could not even produce a list of deficiencies that she expected me to be responsible for. All that is, after two years of getting ready to go to court, she showed up with 6 inches of paperwork in my lawyer showed up with 1 1/2 feet of documentation! Who paid for this? Yours truly! Is there any way out of it? No, it's the price of doing business in this industry.

Do you want to get away without being sued? You have got to strike up a relationship with your client so that they fully understand what to expect.

When I explain the inspection agreement , paragraph #6 NACHI inspection agreement, to my client I tell them simply to let me know as soon as they find out a problem and let me take a look at it so that I can try to make things right. If I get a call from their lawyer, I can no longer talk to them and there is no way to resolve the issue, so give me a call first! I get a chuckle from every client I say this to!(humor is a good thing!)

It doesn't matter how good of an inspector you are, it's how good of a report writer you are!

The only thing that the client thinks he is buying is the inspection report.
When I first considered going into this profession full time, I had a friend at the place I worked for, sitdown and have a few beers with me and discuss my business plan. The first thing that came out of his mouth was that my inspection report was "the product" that the client was purchasing. He told me that it didn't matter about what I did, rather what I said and how the client perceived it. So consider this, we spent a lot of time to get jobs, we spent a lot of on-site time investigating, but do we rushed through the inspection report? Do we take shortcuts? I have comments time and time again how thorough my inspection was. Did they follow me around and watch me? No, they probably weren't even there! The perception comes from the inspection report. The perception comes from how you handle your client when you do meet them for a walk through at the end of the inspection(if not, spend two hours on the telephone with them). Did you give your client enough time? Did you answer all their questions? Did you give them the opportunity to question you at any time in the future, until the end of the earth?

If not, watch for that envelope in the mail box!

[Larry D. Kage]

Good post David.

The were two things in your post, for me.

One was what you said (wrote and explained) and the second was what I heard (read and understood).

Spend time with the client until they are comfortable understanding.

Like I said, good post.

[Doug Edwards, CMI]

Dave,
Great post. As always sane reasonable information and usable, salient points. Good advise for all of us.