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Subrogation Claims Against Home Inspectors
To the ever expanding list of rent seekers that Home Inspectors have to fend off, please add insurance companies that have paid a first-party claim on behalf of a homeowner and then want to recover that payment from the home inspector through subrogation. Subrogation is a legal concept whereby one party – the subrogee –…
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Boxcars
There’s nothing like a birthday to drive home the point that life has stages: the Immortal Stage that lasts until about age 55 and the Mortal Stage where I am now gaining seniority at a breathtaking pace. Today, I am turning 66. A pair of sixes. Boxcars. Ever since I became the Irish Patient, I’ve…
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Don’t Create Problems Where None Exist
One aspect of human nature that has always baffled me is the tendency on the part of some people to create problems where none really exist, notwithstanding that I have been living with a member of that tribe for the last thirty-one-and-a-half years . To these folks, a rainy day at the beach is an…
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Strengthen Pre-Inspection Agreements to Avoid Lawsuits
One of the techniques that I stress in my home inspector training with the Law and Disorder Seminar for reducing one’s potential for being successfully sued is for home inspectors to strengthen their Pre-Inspection Agreements with clauses that narrow a claimant’s ability to bring a claim by designating contractually the exact circumstances under which the…
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Boxers Or Briefs?
There’s a well-developed discussion that attracted a lot of commentary on one of the industry message boards that I visit regularly on what reporting methodology, Checklists or Narratives, is better. The discussion centers on the question of which one is more likely to provide a defense in the event that a claim eventuates from the…
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Extinguish All Reputation-Damaging Home Inspector Threats
By the time a home inspector contacts me, he or she has already made exhaustive attempts to explain to an irrational client why a leak in a roof six months after it was reported as “near the end of its life expectancy” in an inspection report is not grounds for a claim against the home…
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Arbitrators Don’t Need to Know the Home Inspection Business
A question that comes up fairly frequently at my home inspector training with the Law and Disorder Seminars when I am extolling the virtues of requiring disputes to be settled in Arbitration is whether or not there should be a requirement that the arbitrator be “familiar with the home inspection business.” And many home inspectors…
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Home Inspectors: Use CAUTION When Combining Contract Clauses
Contract clauses sometimes do not mix well. There is at least one state that will nullify contractual limitation of liability clauses when paired with arbitration clauses. (Do you know which state that is? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn.) And we all know – or should know – that arbitration clauses in pre-inspection…
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5 Stages of Home Inspection Claim Grief
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with a home inspector in Connecticut. The inspector was trying to neutralize a claim by a former client over asbestos contamination issues with a property that he had inspected some months previous. Now, as a general matter, the determination of environmental hazards and toxins is some distance…
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All About Arbitration – Who Should Pay?
A Connecticut home inspector recently wrote to me about a “finding” he heard at a local law course, in which he has told that the American Arbitration Association (AAA) is now looking at DEFENDANTS for a substantial sum of money when a claim initiates. This law course “professor” instructed the students to specify arbitration using…
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Protecting Home Inspectors from Meritless Claims
