Home Inspector Discrepancies
admin October 7th, 2008
I recently became aware of a couple of instances where there was a very big discrepancy between what a qualified Home Inspector reported and the reality of the condition of a house. Once the Buyers had moved in and had a chance to have a good look around and live in the house a few days, they discovered many problems that the inspector had overlooked and misrepresented. It prompted me to investigate the Home Inspection industry further to see just what is the responsibility and liability of Home Inspectors.
To briefly explain, for those unfamiliar with the function of a home inspector; when a buyer is deciding whether or not to purchase a home, they will often hire a Home Inspector in order to determine the condition of a home and to uncover any deficiencies that the home may have, be they large or small. Some imperfections are fairly insignificant while others may be larger, quite costly and be cause for great concern. However, in all cases, based on the Home Inspector’s Report, buyers will decide their course of action. That is the reason the Buyer has hired the Home Inspector. They may decide that they are going to accept the condition of the home and go ahead and purchase it or they may feel an adjustment in price needs to be made to reflect the deficiencies in the house or, in some cases, they may decide to back down from purchasing the home all together. In any case, it is obvious that Buyers make decisions to spend very large amounts of money based on the reports of these Home Inspectors.
I contacted a certified member of the National Association of Home Inspectors about this issue and asked whether there is a regulatory body that has legal jurisdiction over Home Inspectors and what kind of accountability a Home Inspector has in these discrepancy cases? The following is the response I received. Although it is not the official response of the NAHI, the following is the answer I received.
Home inspectors are not currently under any government regulation in Ontario, or as a matter of fact within Canada. To make a very long commentary on the home inspection sector somewhat short – the predecessor of [the certification program] you see today (the National Certification Program) was an initiative launched to enhance the credibility and status of the home inspection industry, as well as to build a platform to harmonize licensing or perhaps some prefer a self-regulating body. This effort is still ongoing, however, the National Certification Program also appears to be viewed by some of the provincial associations such as OAHI (CAHPI Ontario) as the instrument to work towards regulation within the province. In some instances other provinces such as BC, Alberta and Quebec are further along in the process.
The National Certification Program is a voluntary process that tests and validates the home inspectors skills and knowledge by a team of expert practitioners through the TIPR process.
On the issue of education and training many inspectors are practicing with a mere 40 hour – 1 week basic training course, others feel qualified enough by their own claim of experience, and the National Certification Program has a program that will require 250 hours of home inspection training and 50 hours of on-site inspection in a mentoring process, as well as on-site testing through the TIPR process. This certainly indicates that there is no common minimum standard for the public (consumers) to rely upon. That is the basic objective of the National Certification Program – to provide the minimum baseline for a home inspector. Like most things, there are many involved in the [home inspection] business that have written their MP to protect their livelihood against this often perceived “evil scheme”. Other see the value and have taken on and met this challenge and become recognized as National Certificate Holders.
At the current time many applicants in the National Certification Program are experienced inspectors, primarily with a designation as a RHI – Registered Home Inspector. The RHI is a recognized provincial certification standard held by those provincial members having met the top level requirement of CAHPI National associations – once again, such as CAHPI Ontario (OAHI).
There are other certification marks claimed by others out there in the marketplace such as “certified home inspectors” or perhaps simply “certified” or more recent “nationally certified” etc. Regardless of the claims, consumers in many cases rely on referrals from Realtors when purchasing a home. I recommend that any consumer must do their research and ask many questions to verify the inspectors authenticity. Realistically, anyone claiming to be licensed as a home inspector is “suspect” – because as I noted earlier, licensing of home inspectors does not currently exist in Canada, or Ontario.
Both CAHPI Ontario (OAHI) and the National Certification Program have an internal Discipline and Professional Practice Committee that handles disputes against home inspection members of these two bodies. It does not handle disputes/complaints of “non-members” however. It does not provide financial compensation for claims; but more specifically can discipline a member for fault provided by sustantiated documentation, and after a review by the committee for defaulting in the realm of professional practice. Any financial claims would require resolution outside of the “association”.
What the home inspector reports in their documentation weighs heavily in court as fact, or perhaps to their own detriment if they fail to report accurately and concisely. Often inspection reports are incomplete or inaccurate – who checks their reports? The National Certification Program reviews the report during the test inspection process. At least it is a start in the right direction.
Do home inspectors have error and omission insurance coverage for compensation of financial claims/losses?
Some do carry it, but it estimated that over half of the home inspectors have no such insurance coverage.
Regarding cleaning up the sector, in general some strongly support better regulation in some “reasonable” form. Hopefully that is fair and equitable regulation that provides a balance between professionalizing the home inspection sector and offering a trustworthy and dependable service to consumers. As such the National Certification Program and it’s affiliated CAHPI National associations are moving in that direction, and at least offer some degree of control through discipline of its members. But on the other side there also exist a large mass of home inspectors that oppose such control, and seemingly flourish in the marketplace. So it still remains buyer/consumer beware when dealing with these unknown inspectors.
It is obvious from the above comments that although many inspectors have the option to become certified, they do not and we have no guarantees that the current system will produce inspectors that will not make mistakes. It is still Buyer Beware! In my 20 years of selling real estate, I must say, I have only had 4 or 5 instances where there was a problem. I make it a practice to recommend 3 or 4 Home Inspectors that I know and trust. Their track record speaks for itself. The problem arises when there has been a pre-inspection already done by the Seller or the market is so busy that you are unable to get your regular Home Inspectors.
It is in our best interest as Home Buyers everywhere in Ontario and Canada that we put pressure on the government and our local MPP’s to ammend the current legislation regarding this industry in order to hold Home Inspectors accountable and responsible for the information they provide. In addition, Buyers should have access to obtain some kind of financial recourse if a Home Inspector makes a gross mistake that costs the Buyer thousands of dollars. I will update the site on this issue if and when I receive any new information. I would appreciate your comments or personal experiences on this issue whether good or bad.