Houston Inspection Lawsuit

[Blaine Wiley]

Originally Posted by dbowers

For the record, MY OPINION is mine. Its not yours; its never wrong because its MY OPINION.

Which is why my PIA states "In the inspectors sole opinion".

[Bruce A. King]

Originally Posted by dbowers

The sellers claim that the HI was practicing engineering.

I saw nothing I felt would qualify as "The practice of engineering".

I'm not a Doctor. If I see a deer get hit by a semi, and the head was severed. The head was on 1 side of the highway; the body on the other side of the highway. If I say "In my opinion the deer is dead", am I practicing medicine without a license.............

If I go to the museum and see a 1,000 year old mummified corpse, are we ALL: practicing medicine without a license if we see the mummy is dead??

If as an inspector, I see a 60 Amp MAIN electrical panel with 5 sub-panels wired off of it (going to a 240v A/C unit; 240v tanning bed; 240v disconnect in a detached workshop; etc), Am I practicing engineering by saying "In my opinion, the service needs upgrading"?


For the record, MY OPINION is mine. Its not yours; its never wrong because its MY OPINION.

Very good point! Too many inspectors out there that think they have to "prove" their writeups with code references and other long drawn out explanations. The clients pay us for our professional opinion and thats what they really want. Besides, when you infer a code violation you are just making a nice loophole for an agent to tell the client "it met code when the house was built". The client thinks, hmmm, the agent must be right then since it passed the code inspections....... so I'll just forget that one.


I get clients every week that used other inspectors in the past and were very unhappy with the way the other inspection and reporting was done.
I have to admit, I was not sure my system was the best at first but after four plus years and multiple praises from clients and agents I have not changed it except to add even more explanations of my own opinion to the report.

[Gary Farnsworth]

Anyone in Texas heard about this recently? People here in Kansas are interested.

[John Cahill]

Originally Posted by bwiley

Which is why my PIA states "In the inspectors sole opinion".

That will not work in Texas. TREC rules limit the inspectors opinion to "reasonable opinion". That means the TREC lawyers decide if you did the job correctly.

[David A. Andersen]

When reading some inspection reports, I often wonder why this never comes to the sellers mind more often!?

Soooo many things end up in reports that have no bearing on the home in question.
Current building codes that do not pertain to the house because of it's age. Circuit breaker panels that are damned without just cause. Projected end-of-life on appliances.

Recommending "further evaluation" without cause is just a $100 loss in most cases, but if the buyer walks without doing the additional evaluation...

We must not influence the buyer to buy or not buy the property. Stacking up "nail pops" and loose toilet seats to generate a 57 page inspection report looks like an "influencing" factor to me. Simply because such reporting is listed as not required in the SOP.

If a building component does not work as intended, is a safety concern because of condition, will significantly effect the structure if not tended to in a timely manor, these are the reasons we are there.

If the Inspector is not qualified to do the job (ie. HVAC evaluation) which requires a licensed specialist, there is no reason for it to be a part of the inspection report at all. There is all too much "cover-your-@ss" going on in report writing and in reality it leaves you with your @ss hanging out there!

"Just the facts please"

1)Old appliance: does it turn on and work at the time of inspection?
2)Did the HVAC unit make hot/cool air when you turned on the t-stat?
3)Are there any "visible" hot spots in the service equipment?

Yes, Yes, No.

1) I doesn't matter if it dies when you walk out the door.
2) No evaluation of performance required.
3) No recall, no evidence of visible adverse condition, no need to report publicized "opinion".

All of the reasons your not responsible for these issues is listed in the SOP.
Read and use it.
When "everyone else does it" a lawyer will try to get you for not being like everyone else.
That boat don't float.
Someone pulled that one on me.
There is nothing you can do to prevent that.
Quit trying, it only makes matters worse!

[Jim Hime]

The Houston inspector lawsuit was settled in mediation on May 13, 2010
per Harris County court records (Filed on May 19, 2010). The entire lawsuit has been resolved per the filing. Unless someone talks the results will not be known.

[Joe Farsetta]

I'll bet the inspector got the short end of this one.

If yu read what the practice of professional engineerng is defined as, the many inspectors are goilty of same.

David Andersen's advice is sound.

[John Onofrey]

Originally Posted by jfarsetta

I'll bet the inspector got the short end of this one.

Doubtful: Did you read this?

[Michael R. Boyett]

I'm with John on this Joe, the Judge's responses to the Plaintiff's motions were generally not favoring the Plaintiff and were definitely heading towards a July trial. The Plaintiff's Motions for Summary Judgment were being denied and the findings of the TBPE, see John's post above, which did not support the Plaintiff's claims all tend to support the notion that the mediation outcome favored the Defendant. I doubt he came out unscathed but I bet he avoided the vast majority of what the Plaintiff originally claimed as damages. I also hope the 'closing documents' that the lawyers have to file will shed some light on the outcome. They may be sealed though and we never know for sure.

[Nick Gromicko]

John, that is an excellent doc. Inspectors everywhere can point to it, if need be.

[John Onofrey]

Originally Posted by gromicko

John, that is an excellent doc. Inspectors everywhere can point to it, if need be.

Indeed, and it is one of the few times that I have ever seen an engineer, let alone a group of engineers, produce a document so short and sweet!

[Joe Farsetta]

Agreed! After seeing this, and experiencing first hand a discussion in NY by engineers on the roles of the inspector, you seem to have a reasonable engineering board in Texas.

In some states (not yours, apparently) they have refined the "practice" as a pre-cursor to building or alteration.

As an example of the difference in NY, if an inspector opines that a foundation crack is a structural defficiency, it is defined as the practice of professional engineering. If the inspector states that a joist is over-spanned, even though the information is available in hundreds of recognized publications, it is construed as the practice of professional engineering.

However, if there was a mediated settlement, the inspector likely lost. I say this because 1) the inspector had no duty to the plaintiff, 2) a settlement likely means that the inspector paid something. For this inspector to pay a cent is a loss.

[Jim Hime]

Originally Posted by dmaricic

I wonder if Gordon would own the house if he lost the $250k suit!

Nope. This home sold (again) shortly after the FIG inspection and according to the tax records the plaintiff no longer owns this home. Unconfirmed report is that the seller (may not have) provided a copy of the report to the new buyer claiming copyright infringement. I wonder what would happen if the new owner saw copy of the report (as it is public record now)?

After looking at the report I wonder why the FIG buyer didn't walk during the inspection. I also wonder if the buyer was even present for the inspection. Much better to charge a trip charge, get on your horse and ride off than write a report. There is no shame in taking your client outside and have a discussion about what you've seen so far.

The selling agent sent letter to the listing agent asking for nominal compensation along with the TREC termination letter stating that if they didn't agree to the compensation the deal was off because it was the last day of the option period. (That letter is in the court documents)

People believe everything can be fixed in all homes?? You are buying someone else's issues and one day you'll need to sell the same.