thank you

[Jian Ming Zhang]

A customer of mine, want to know the size of their store, and give me a offer to measure their store size,because they want to sue their house ower. This is the legal problem and they need my home inspection report. Can our report become leagal evidence ?Looking forward your feedback at your earliest convenience.

[Claude Lawrenson]

Yes a report can become legal evidence. The bottom line - what part is useful for application against the lawsuit. Do home inspectors normally note sizes of rooms, or the overall building structure? My point being you can always exceed the "standards", based on your knowledge and experience.

I remember reading a claim against a realtor for falsely advertising the size of a property. The claimant won because the information provided to the purchaser was inaccurate.

[Jeffrey S. Campbell]

upon completing an inspection on Thursday, the buyer (client) was perplexed... we were going through the summary and he asked me if the garage is normally part of the square footage listed on the spec sheet... i told him I did not believe so, but they've only started adding that regularly in the past couple years. Well by adding up room sizes and taking outside measurements he was over 500 sf off... (2100+/- compared to listed 2640)... he was not happy... he canceled the radon, water and septic at that point... they were moving from a 3200 sf home and could no way fit into a home this size... ???? received notice today they backed out... and are looking again. Anything they(sellers, realtors) put down in writing should be accurate or it could cost them...

[Bob Elliott]

Originally Posted by jcampbell

upon completing an inspection on Thursday, the buyer (client) was perplexed... we were going through the summary and he asked me if the garage is normally part of the square footage listed on the spec sheet... i told him I did not believe so, but they've only started adding that regularly in the past couple years. Well by adding up room sizes and taking outside measurements he was over 500 sf off... (2100+/- compared to listed 2640)... he was not happy... he canceled the radon, water and septic at that point... they were moving from a 3200 sf home and could no way fit into a home this size... ???? received notice today they backed out... and are looking again. Anything they(sellers, realtors) put down in writing should be accurate or it could cost them...

I pass out my infrared measuring tape to my clients .

If sq foot is wrong that is another defect ,is it not?

No not in my report , but I am there to help,and not worry about it affecting my fee or I become like another commission seeker.

[Jeffrey S. Campbell]

realtor did state that square footage was NOT a viable reason to get out of the contract... but FLOOD zone was... we'll see... unfortunately it was a NICE home!

[David C. Verge]

Your client has told you the reason for asking you to do measurements is to facilitate a lawsuit. Unless they have also agreed to pay your witness time costs, give this assignment a miss. ( you will be called as a witness )
On the second point; we must be prepared to defend anything that is noted in an inspection report

[mnahrgang]

I think I would ask the client what the tax records state. If those confirm his suspicions, then he doesn't need another measurement. If they confirm the sellers/original owners, then he can call the local assessor and ask them to come out and re-measure in order to alter their tax bill. (All of these things for free.)