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Home Inspectors: Here Are Your New Year’s Resolutions
First, let’s get the “Happy New Year!” salutation out of the way. My team and I wish you the very best in 2017. I suggest you follow these New Year’s resolutions to get the most out of your business and make the best use of your time in 2017. 1. Raise your rates: This is…
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Join Joe Ferry at ASHI/MAHI Seminar in Levittown, NY
If you are a frequent visitor of JoeFerry.com, you may already know about the upcoming ASHI/MAHI seminar on Long Island this February. The video above details the benefits of attending this meeting full of valuable home inspector training. You can click within the video for registration information as well. I will be presenting the Law…
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E&O Insurance Does NOT Paint a Target On Your Back
Many home inspectors believe that if they tell a client and his/her lawyers that they don’t carry professional liability insurance, the claim will just disappear. However, there are no shortage of clients making meritless claims. I see them every day. Would no insurance from which to collect on a judgment make the claim just go…
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Thermal Imaging’s Liability Factor
A California home inspector recently sent me an email inquiring about thermal imaging’s place in the industry, but more importantly, my legal perspective on whether the new “x-ray vision” opened up another dimension of legal liability for the inspector. Thermal imaging has become more commonplace as another add-on in an inspector’s menu of services, increasing…
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Transferring Assets to Your Spouse Does NOT Protect You From Creditors
Home inspectors often observe that putting everything in their spouse’s name would make them financially insolvent and protect them against greedy, reckless clients searching for financial blood. In these instances, inspectors consider themselves judgment-proof and find no need to carry professional liability insurance. However, not everything is as rosy as it looks on the surface.…
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Limitation of Liability is NOT a Home Inspector’s Best Friend
Home inspectors love Limitation of Liability clauses because, in most U.S. jurisdictions, they put a cap on a home inspector’s potential liability for negligence. However, these same clauses also stifle a home inspector’s earning potential. How? I describe in the video below how Limitation of Liability clauses are completely unnecessary and don’t prevent clients and…
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No Country For Old Inspectors
There is nothing like a road trip for restoring your faith in the future of this country and reminding you that, despite our manifold problems, the present is pretty awesome, too. As I write this, I am sitting at the departure gate for my flight home to Philadelphia after having spent a few extra days…
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Accept No Substitutes
The other day, I got a call from an old friend and a long-time ClaimIntercept™ subscriber. He had been contacted by an E & O insurance monger retailing a product with a price that he found attractive and he wanted to talk to me about it. I had never heard of the company but that…
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Only 1% of All Home Inspection Claims Have Merit
A home inspector who serves on his state’s licensing board told me that 6% of the licensed inspectors in that state had claims brought against them and that 90% (yes, 90%) of those claims had merit. Those numbers were completely at odds with my experience where less than 1% of home inspection claims have merit,…
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The Cozy World of Litigation: “I Like to Give Business to People I Like”
A home inspector I’ve known for several years came up to me at an industry workshop with an issue: he had received a demand letter from a past client for failing to detect mold. Shocking, the underlying facts of this claim were ridiculous. Leaving aside that mold detection is excluded from any extant standard of…
