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The Broken Heat Pump
Since 2007 I have been providing home inspector training all over the country about legal issues that impact their practice and the tools and techniques that they can implement in their own businesses to reduce their likelihood of becoming victimized by their ungrateful clientele. Since I began giving the seminar, I have also been asked…
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Anchors Aweigh: The Limitation of Liability Effect
Regular readers know that I am dead set against refunding inspection fees to unhappy clients. Ever. I have written extensively elsewhere on this site as to why this is a bad idea and a terrible habit to cultivate. Yet inspectors continue to do it. Why? On my daily 4 mile sortie through my leafy neighborhood…
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The Costs of Defending a Home Inspector Lawsuit (2 of 2)
One of the more unpleasant experiences in life is answering your door and finding the county sheriff or one of his deputies on your doorstep asking if you are one of the defendants named in the copy of the Complaint that he is holding, a Complaint that has been filed by one of your home…
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When Should You Report A Home Inspection Claim?
This blog generates a lot of email from home inspectors. Recently, a home inspector wrote that he had been given a heads-up from a real estate agent with whom he has an active business relationship that a former client was getting ready to initiate the claim process against everyone involved in the transaction. Though he…
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Disclaimers, Will They Protect You?
ASHI – NE Chapter Education Chairman, Bob Mulloy, in a recent note wrote: Joe – I am preparing a future seminar for ASHI, titled “Disclaimers, Will They Protect You?” I have numerous sample disclaimers for systems and components that I plan to present for discussion. Let me ask you some questions: How would you define…
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The Costs of Defending a Home Inspection Lawsuit (1 of 2)
As a frequent contributor to online inspection forums, I regularly get private email from professional home inspectors seeking my opinion on legal matters. Recently a reader wrote: “Joseph, So, absent an E&O home inspector insurance policy, inspectors are exposed to the realities of defending a claim, which in 98% of the cases you have seen,…
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When Attorneys Amend Your Agreement
One of my home inspector clients contacted me the other day for advice on what to do about a prospect whose attorney had lined out in its entirety the portion of his Inspection Agreement that a. required binding arbitration and b. required claims to be brought within one-year of the inspection. In his transmittal email…
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The Irish Patient
The vast majority of my friends firmly believe that I am “lucky”. Not just lucky, but unusually so. I believe it, myself. How many kids grow up with six older brothers to guide them along life’s journey and to straighten out wannabe tough guys? Have loving parents possessed of moral compasses that unerringly pointed True…
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Mr. Home Inspector, Will You Pay For My Renovation (3 of 3)
After getting an indefinite extension of time to respond to the Complaint and, thus, eliminating any possibility of a default, I wrote to the inspector insurance company to timely advise it of the claim. I enclosed a complete copy of the Complaint, a copy of my letter to the Plaintiffs’ attorney that delineated all the…
