I’ve been an agent over 25 years and recently had a listing , where buyer was the agent.
The inspection report was clearly tampered with as inspector allowed agent to have an ’ editable’ version of the report.
I am mortified. Inspector is not licenced agent any longer, so not able to be brought up in front of Grievance. How do you deal with inspectors who would allow this to happen?
Read enough reports in all my years to know this was not written by him… and he avoided all calls , would not return a call or email to me , when I asked for clarification OR for him to send me … directly … a copy of the actual report ( not via the agent / buyer).
You’re a real estate agent. A buyer, also a real estate agent, sent you an inspection report you believe has been tampered with, ostensibly prepared by a inspector who was a licensed real estate agent, but no longer holds a license.
How to deal with it? Ignore it. Tell your buyer what you will fix and leave it at that. If the inspector is supposed to be licensed (you don’t tell us what state you are working in, other than that of mortification) but is not, report him to the authorities.
As an inspector, I try to stick to what I know to be factually true (e.g., I know that the certification placard misrepresents the amount of insulation in the attic, so I state that the placard is false. I don’t call if fraudulent because that requires me to presume intent, even If I believe that to be the case).
I would treat the report the same way, regardless of how strong your suspicions of wrongdoing are. Where I know the report to be wrong, I would state it’s wrong and discount that comment. If there are enough of them, I might discount the report altogether and treat the inspector’s findings as non-credible. I would not expect the inspector to provide you a copy of his client’s report regardless of whether your suspicions are true or not (I would never provide a copy of the report to a listing agent unless directed to do so by my client). So I don’t think you can draw any conclusions from that.
If I felt I could prove dishonesty, I would raise an ethics complaint against both parties, but that’s an awfully high hurdle.
If the forgery was used to obtain or attempt to fraudulently obtain cash from the sale, you may be a victim of a felony depending upon the law in your state. Report the actions of both parties to your local police.
As an agent representing a seller, I simply would not accept an editable copy of a home inspection report. Request a copy in PDF format directly from the inspector if you are leary. Warn them of the due diligence time requirements for submitting a valid home inspection report. If you don’t get it within the due diligence time frame, then assert they failed to meet that due diligence requirement. Check to make sure the inspector is licensed in your state (assuming licensing is required). If things are indeed fraudulent you have a case to file a complaint with the licensing board of the buyer’s agent, the home inspector, or both. Sounds like a good reason to have a sit down with your Broker in Charge (if that’s not you).
Report them both to the police and let them sort it out. Conspiracy to defraud, depending upon the amount of money they attempted to get with false information, is a felony. If the inspector had no role in it, the cops won’t charge him. If he did, the realtor will throw him under the bus so as not to take the full blame.