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Managing Risk with E&O Insurance for Home Inspectors
A home inspector in Texas recently asked me via email what I thought “about the efforts to have the Texas Inspector E & O mandate rescinded” which was my first notice that such an effort was afoot. Evidently the Texas Professional Real Estate Inspection Association (“TPREIA”) had succeeded in having a bill to do just…
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5 Steps to a Good Night’s Sleep and Higher Inspection Fees
The number one complaint that I get from Home Inspectors on the home inspector training Law and Disorder Tour is about E & O Insurance companies for home inspectors. Their perceived default claim posture of caving in and paying unmeritorious claims – usually with a hefty contribution from the inspector pursuant to the deductible feature…
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Bonds are NOT a Form of E&O Insurance for Home Inspectors
Reader Martin Greenberg brought up a good point in a comment on my recent post “The Importance of E & O Insurance for Home Inspectors.” “In the state of Arizona,” he wrote, “the licensing bureau offers a choice. E & O coverage or post a bond. Since few inspectors are successfully sued and plaintiffs rarely…
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Brand X Insurance Companies Can Be Hazardous To Your Wealth
As I was writing that headline, the thought struck me that many readers might not be familiar with the Mad Men-era advertising invention. For those benighted youngsters, in ubiquitous television commercials of the day, Brand X was the competing product that left ring around the collar, caused soapy buildup and dry lifeless hair. In real…
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Home Inspector Attorney Fees Clauses and Their Value
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I am in my twenty-fifth year of practicing law, the last five of which have been heavily concentrated on the representation of home inspectors. Over the years, close to 1500 inspectors have attended my home inspector training at the Law and Disorder Seminar, which itself has undergone major…
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You Don’t Need A Weatherman To See Which Way The Wind Is Blowing
A couple of home inspectors in West Virginia recently alerted me to a hot-off-the-presses West Virginia Supreme Court decision that invalidates Limitation of Liability clauses in home inspection pre-inspection agreements. The case, Finch v. Inspectech, LLC, No. 11-0276 (W.Va 2012) can be found here. The Court’s reasoning, which I found quite compelling, was that the…
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Don’t Get Caught in Pre-Sale Inspections Trap
Sellers are encouraged to obtain home inspections prior to listing their house for sale. That said, home inspectors MUST be aware of exposing themselves to liability to non-client third parties. Home inspectors run into problems when someone with whom the home inspector does not have a contract claims to have been warned by the alleged…
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Store Your Home Inspection Reports in The Cloud
A home inspector recently asked me, “Joe, how long should I keep my inspection reports?” Instead of using a lot of paper, rely on an electronic version for your own records. There are various free electronic storage options that are beneficial to home inspectors, who are looking to store 250-plus inspection reports, along with corresponding…
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Clarifications
When I was studying calculus in college, I thought that the text book that we used belabored a lot of points that seemed obvious to me. The book would take three or four steps to illustrate some mathematical operations that the professor would illustrate in one or two. I found this disconnect a bit annoying…
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Timing of Home Inspection Claims
When I was assembling the material for my home inspector training at the Law and Disorder Seminar a little over four years ago, I gathered some data about home inspection claims from an underwriter for an insurance company that is a major player in the home inspector professional liability insurance market. And while talking to…
