rrich
(Robert Rich, washington State Home inpection lic# 1747)
1
I’m Looking for some thoughts regarding charging clients a cancellation fee. The preinspection agreement i send out and clients sign states that if you cancel the inspection with in 48 hrs of said inspection date and time on the agreement that I am able to charge a fee equal to the inspection fee!
This cancellation came via text message at 5:30 AM when inspection was scheduled at noon that day. I found out that my client cancelled because her realtor did not like the fact that my companies liability is limited per the preinspection agreement so her realtor told her to use a different inspection company. The realtor told me that i don’t know who he is and i don’t want to piss him off. Not sure what he meant by that…
Any thoughts…
I’ve never charged a cancellation fee, however I’ve never had a cancellation with that late of notice or for that reason.
Interesting. I’m not aware of any realtor, buyers or sellers, reading any of my clients pre-inspection agreement. Let alone giving any advice concerning it.
rrich
(Robert Rich, washington State Home inpection lic# 1747)
4
Consumers are becoming more aware of these liability limiting statements and how they lose when they are used. Remove the limit, perform an exceptional inspection every time, and do not worry about liability.
Sometimes things happen.
Sometimes it’s out of the client’s control (appraisal, title, deed, etc.)
Sometimes they just “bail”, and it can be last minute or 3 days in advance.
You can charge a fee, or try to, most Hi’s don’t (I don’t) & I’m not sure if your market will tolerate that scenario.
It has nothing to do with your reviews. You may be the best home inspector in your area.
It has to do with WHY they canceled. As Emmanuel Scanlan pointed out.
A cancelation is the buyer gets cold feet and cancels escrow before the inspection. A cancellation is the buyer’s loan turns out to not be pre-approved after they thought it was, so they cancel escrow before the inspection.
In your case, the buyers didn’t cancel the inspection, they merely canceled having you do the inspection.
In California, we can’t limit the liability of the inspection to just the inspection fee, so that doesn’t happen here. But maybe it’s common in your area. I don’t know.
I’m just thinking maybe this is a learning experience as to how to make sure it doesn’t happen again. In this case, the buyer already decided they’re not hiring you, so I’m not sure how you could convince them to pay you a cancelation fee.
For myself, I know if I book so many jobs in a week, chances are one will fall through. And when one falls through, it’s either a time to rest, catch up on other aspects of the business, or sell the slot to the next caller.
rrich
(Robert Rich, washington State Home inpection lic# 1747)
8
Thanks every one… Emmanuel I think that"s what I’m going to do.
That may be the reason the Realtor used to convince the client to go with someone else, but I bet the truth is closer to the fact that you’re not her normal inspector which likely supplies soft inspection reports, so she scared that you may be a road block to her commission check.