I’m looking to do some house cleaning…my question is how long should I keep my inspection records?
Thanks for the imput guys.
You still using floppy discs or something.
Why not keep them forever ?
Illinois demands minimum 5 years.
Check your state laws.
I keep two pins drives. At the end of each year, I add that years files to the drive along with any pictures. One drive in my home safe, one drive in safe deposit box that also has the original hard copy signed contracts. Inspections are kept forever, contracts are kept for 5 years per state law and shredded after that.
as long as you want. Once delivered your work is done.
Anything extra is just you being nice 
Your job is never done.
All good Inspectors state the same line at the end of every inspection…
Call me with questions as long as you own the home :mrgreen:
This is known as good “customer Service” which lasts more than 5 years.
If they call in 6 I want to go over my original report and if you need to ask why may not have good “customer Service”.
I just saying what he HAS to do.
I have yet to NOT be able to answer any questions or even pull up a copy if requested. I mainly do insurance inspections but I have just about everything I have ever done.
If it crashed and I lost it I would not sweat it as I never promise to keep THEIR records for them.
10-4
It would be real interesting if you had an IRS audit and they asked to prove how many inspections and what the fees were. You can just provide a print out with the journal entries or you can back it up with reports, which do you think the IRS would be more likely to believe?
I have almost every report I ever wrote, including pictures. I have my original MSFH reports. That is over 10,000 if you add my other inspectors it is closer to 20,000. We get questions years later, especially with wind mits. Almost all of it is electronic.
Me to but electronics fail and where does our RESPONSIBILITY lie?
IRS that’s another issue all together.
I do not mess with them and do exactly whatever my accountant says to do.
I hope my new accountant is as good as my old one.
I too have almost every inspection I have ever done, on disc, zip drive, back up drive, two other laptops, the cloud, and locked away in a safe. I don’t care where our responsibility lies…I have whatever will be needed.
As for the IRS…If they wish to dig through a bunch of reports, have at it! 
For this year alone, I am at 50gb worth of data for inspection reports.
Curious… if your old accountant was so good, why did you fire him/her? Or was it the other way around? 
I could not afford him any longer and he would not work with me on price after 20+ years of me never once questioning his prices.
He also did my parents stuff for 30+ years.
That sux!
Don’t you just hate it when professionals get all ‘full of themselves’ and think they are too good for common folk?
Mine was going to retire and raise his prices.
I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
He lowered his price and all I send him every quarter is my general ledger, which I have done anyway in Excel as part of our budget.
4 e mails a year, a check in December, plus, he does our personal taxes. I told him to think of it as his “Christmas Bonus”.
Some professionals like to increase their income on occasion. :mrgreen: