Inadequate Report (posted by Patricia Nash)

[ASKNACHI]This question was posted on AskNACHI.org by Patricia Nash (from Canoga Park, CA). [/ASKNACHI]Short of filing a lawsuit against an inspector for negligence, is there a state agency a homeowner can file a complaint with? If so, which one?

I would say send a copy of all your information to and tell them of your concerns… Cookie

For nearly ALL questions (PREFERRED method of contact):
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Did you hire the inspector or are you the seller that just had a buyers inspection performed?

It looks like you are in California. The laws are much different there than in other states. First the terms of the inspection contract should be re-read. Is there any wording that requires you to contact the Inspector prior to repairs? or give them the chance to re-inspect? or any other requirements in the contract that you would be required to follow prior to taking any additional steps?

It would help to know if you are the: Buyer, Seller or what your standing with the inspection might be. Were you the actual client that purchased the Inspection? More information can help us, help you.

You might look here http://www.creia.org/i4a/pages/Index.cfm?pageID=3460#PERFORMANCECOMPLAINT

Lets think about this now if it is a NACHI , inspector who she is talking about would in not be to our advantage to have NACHI find out if there was a bad report and keep this in house to find out if some thing should be done or questions asked before it gets posted in other places.

WE have no idea if there is a concern at this time.

… Cookie

In California, there is no licensing requirement to be a home inspector. If the inspector is a member of CREIA (California Real Estate Inspectors Association), you can file a compliant with them and they will review the issue.

Other than that unfortunately, there is not much more you can do other than arbitration or suing the inspector. What you should do is to carefully read the contract you signed, the standards of practice that the inspection was done to (if there is one that the inspector uses) and the report.

Inspectors (contrary to what others may think) are not all knowing. We perform a visual inspection of the property. By our own standards of practice, we generally do not do a exhaustive inspection of everything.

Good luck with your situation.

A direct answer would be no, there is not a state agency that a homeowner can file a complaint with.

Have you been unsuccessful in contacting, or working with, the home inspector? And as others have said, are you the seller, buyer, Realtor, or even someone else? We get threats of lawsuits quite often from sellers, but they eventually find that they have no legal standing concering the buyer’s choice of inspectors and/or the buyer’s home inspector’s report.

I’m in San Diego and am certainly willing to help you work through some issues. Let me know if that would be helpful to you, and you and I can make arrangements to speak real time by phone.

I don’t think this thread is linked to the ask nachi thing.
Anyone else notice this?

Hey Patricia;

We have some very strict and specific seller transfer disclosures here in California. Since I don’t know the particulars of your situation, I’m wondering if the “Possible” lack of seller disclosure factors into the equation. If your case goes legal, the seller and agents will definitly be involved.

Good Luck!

Thanks Bruce.
Yes! from the get go ,thats why I said to let NACHI handle this in house .
We have no information on the inspection and to give this continuing milage and speculation it could come back to haunt us.
This has happened before where information from the BB where parts of post’s have been used on other BBs.
In fact one person is no longer with NACHI that did this.

… Cookie

CREIA is a Not4Profit HI organization and has “NO” legal authority over any inspector, member or not… They’re simply one of many industry trade associations.

But as Dwight correctly stated, one can file a complaint with them and they will look into it. They don’t fancy bad inspectors bringing discredit to the CREIA name.

This brings up more questions than answers.

What was “missed”? How was the inspector negligent? When did the issue occur, and when was it discovered? Is the issue part of the home inspection? Has the inspector had a chance to re-inspect the problem prior to any repairs having been performed? Has the inspector even been contacted?

I’d love to hear more about this. All too often the inspector is blamed for something that was not able to be discovered during the inspection, wasn’t present during the inspection, or wasn’t even discovered by a contractor called in for an issue after the inspection.

What is the story here?

http://www.nachiadrs.com/

Today I got a complaint letter from a buyer that was at the inspection 3 weeks ago. He states he moved in after our inspection and immediately discovered the water heater leaks, the furnace has a crack in the heat exchanger and there is a foundation crack needing repair. He’s mad and wants money. I didn’t do the inspection. I pulled the report to look it over.

The inspection report noted the water and gas were off into the house and the furnace, bath fixtures, furnace, appliances, etc, etc were not operated. We also noted the A/C unit and part of the plumbing pipes had been vandalized and were missing. We reported that there was no combustion air for the equipment room and the flues had holes and ran downhill. We also noted the burners and visible heat chamber on the 35 year old furnace was **HEAVILY **covered in scale, debris, etc and recommended getting the unit serviced and having the integrity of the heat exchanger verified **PRIOR TO CLOSING, and mentioned that with no utilities the furnace was not operated or tested by us. **

We reported on 2 foundation cracks needing professional repair and stated the deck was on the ground so we couldn’t see the foundation at that point (thats where the other crack turned out to be).

We suggested they have utilities restored and either call us back to check this stuff (at an extra trip charge) **OR **to have a contractor check and repair things. Among other things, the report said the water heater was "red tagged and had photos of everything.

After reviewing the report, I called the buyer to discuss it. He started out by cursing and telling me how unhappy he was AND how he was gonna sue, etc, etc.

I listened for a few minutes, then politely told him that if I ever heard from him again I’d bring criminal charges for attempted insurance fraud, file my own lawsuit for the stress on my weak heart AND stop by his house or work unexpectedly and … into jelly.

I have totally had it with this kind of BS from these low lifes.

I used to run into these creetins once a year or two - now it seems like they pop up at least 1 a month or so.

It’s the society we live in, and the foreclosure situation/subprime mortgage situation/credit crunch situation hasn’t helped matters any.

As most readers know, I like to write long letters, so I would have written him a long letter with pictures, quotes from the report, etc. I’ve found during the course of my business career that people simply get tired of reading the long letter and go off to walk the cat, thereby forgetting about the problem that they tried to blame on me.