Wondering how you would address this, if at all. The attic was completely dry. Trusses obviously sat in the weather during construction. Not that it matters, but this is new construction.
67 views over 2 days, and 8 people cast a vote. Wow.
Maybe anyone who had an opinois posted their thoughts in the other thread.
Call it out, defer to specialist.
About 5 people said that in the other thread. I was hoping to get some poll stats here, since I’m catching some grief from a builder and agent over the issue. It ain’t gonna happen I guess.
What kind of grief?
Tell them, you’ll personally have those trusses swapped with any in their homes. 
Offer sampling the trusses. If they don’t want testing, have them sign a waiver.
Imagine that, the builder and the Realtor are pissed because you are killing their sell.
I feel like if I do not piss a seller or a Realtor off at least once a week without even trying, I am not doing my job.:mrgreen: They just need to get over it.
Do the bathroom vents terminate in the attic?
Which I’m sure you know could contribute to further mold growth.
Yep. The builder and listing agent wanted a meeting. I told them “I’d be happy to…my consultation rate is $150 per hour.” They got a little heated at that. Then went into the sad story about how it is impossible to build a perfect home and wood gets rained on during construction, etc. I’m killing the deal, I’m costing them money, etc.
Since this is an attic, I just wanted a little reassurance that I did the right thing. That’s all. Was feeling questioning myself a bit and wanted to see some stats to see if others felt the same way.
I held my ground well. Recommended they get a 3rd party to do the mold evaluation.
I had a one of the biggest contractors in my area threaten to sue me if his deal got killed because of my report on a new commercial building. I told him that he cannot sue me for telling the truth.
It is always good to find a top expert in certain fields in your area that you can refer just in case.
Houses might end up getting very hard to sell in the future since buyers really want to know the true condition. Sellers need to have their house inspected as soon as they think they will put it up for sale. This includes builders too. The ones who do not understand why will have to deal with the consequences as they come.
What would this mold issue potentially cost an inspector who did not report it? This mold issue may not ever affect the buyer until he tries to sell the house, then he could then end up with the same financial damages that the builder is facing now.
It’s not up to us to decide what is important to the buyer. In the worst case, its up to the buyer and buyers attorney what is considered important and in those cases its the inspector who loses.
I have seen many builders clean trusses at the predrywall stage. I bet that builder wishes he had a more knowledgable staff working for him or had hired a good inspector.
Report it Recommend a mold test or mold expert, Ask the other two if the will pay your expenses when your sued because you didn’t mention it. we do not kill deals houses do
“Stains consistent with mold on attic trusses”. Recommend further evaluation/testing by a qualified mold contractor/consultant".
or
“Stains consistent with mold in the attic. Recommend a qualified mold contractor/consultant evaluate/sample to assure the deal is killed”.
or
“With an attitude like that I have decided to fore-go the mold experts opinion and just kill the damn deal myself’. Better luck next time”.
;-):D:mrgreen:
At which point he’ll have to disclose it.
In my experience, most builders will perform a hlaf-*** cleanup and not disclose the mold. Sad but true.
I do not see how you can or should avoid “mentioning” this in your report. Now having said that, it is not yours or my responsibility to make the seller or the builder happy unless we represent them, even then we must be honest. I would mention this to the buyer, I would also put it in the summary with a plausible explanation as to how it can occur so as not to give them the impression it is an “ongoing” problem. We simply can not ignore the presence of mold. I do not do any testing, sampling or whatever cute term is being used these days. I have purposely avoiding doing any environmental inspections but I also tell the customer if I see any mold I will bring it to their attention and let them make the decision on how they want to proceed. I believe I already assume enough liability as it is doing home inspections; I do not need to assume double or triple that by doing environmental inspections for a few dollars more.
I have been trained in various areas, I just made a business decision based on cost, benefit trade off with a fairly predictable outcome. In short, not worth my time or effort or comfort level. That way, if I am ever asked why I did not do a certain test or how could I have missed this…My answer…I am not qualified to do that and it is outside the scope of my inspection as laid out in our PIA.
Just like an obvious electrical or plumbing problem, I would note it in the report and refer them to hire a specialist. If we are keeping to the premise that we are “generalists” than we must do it consistently.
If a contractor was really concerned about the sale, he would make an effort to clean up the mold, treat the area as perscribed using known protocols. My experience has been that most, not all, but most times the sellers and contractors do not want to spend ANY of their own money to correct a problem, especially if they can get the buyer to do it and or they can convince an inspector to modify their findings. Hence their sob story. It changes nothing but is an excuse.
Excuse, noun.…the skin of a reason, stuffed with a lie.
Offer a complete Mold Inspection.
Update:
The builder wouldn’t do anything about it unless the buyer proved it was mold. Buyer didn’t want to spend any more money on it, so she backed out of this deal.
She bought an identical unit she has observed for 2 months and photographed during construction (from the same builder). No fuzzy stuff on the trusses she told me. (She didn’t have it inspected.)
Builder will fully disclose mold issues on the trusses to a future buyer. :mrgreen:
A house does not pass or fail an inspection! It is given a non bios and non evasive report of its current condition.give the report to your client with lots of time stamp photos, if your are not a mold expert tell your client, tell the reltor and builder if the house was clean and ready to sell it would have!
Looks like it FAILED! She didn’t buy it… BIG “F” :p:p