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The Typical Home Inspection Claim Runaround
I’ve now been successfully defending home inspectors against meritless claims for a decade now, and with over 1,000 claims under my belt, I feel I’m qualified to describe the typical home inspection claim runaround competent home inspectors like yourself receive when dealing with an “issue” that really isn’t your “issue” at all. I recently received…
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Home Inspector Selfie! Take More Photos During Home Inspection
Home inspectors – I’m sure you are familiar with the “selfie” mantra of today’s youth. In essence, they love taking photos. You should have the same passion during a home inspection. Take photos of each room in the house, appliances, HVAC units and more. Take far more photos than required or that you will even…
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Another Groundhog Day
Since our kids have grown into responsible adults and are no longer needing or wanting to be around us for longer than necessary, Lady Agag and I have been spending more of our time at the seaside, especially in the so-called shoulder seasons of May-June and September-October. At the moment, we are half-way through what…
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Don’t Indulge Rage-Induced Home Sellers
I’m starting to see a very disturbing trend developing between the home inspection industry and the real estate marketplace: non-client home sellers are bringing claims against home inspectors for the failure of their clients to follow through on the agreement of sale as a consequence of the home inspector’s findings. Some of these frustrated sellers,…
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Home Inspectors: Lies Kill in a Deposition
In the discovery phase of a lawsuit, laywers ask witnesses questions under oath that are recorded by a court reporter. Believe it or not, lying is commonplace! As a lawyer, I’m thrilled when a party opponent lies under oath. I explain why and detail the reasons you should never lie in a deposition in the…
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Why Your Home Inspector Insurance Company MUST Defend You
A claim is brought against you after inspecting a vacant house, and your insurance company wants you to (surprise, surprise) settle it quickly and claim responsibility. However, you didn’t do anything wrong and instead want to fight the claim, but you are afraid your insurance company will bail if you don’t agree to settle. False.…
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Pre-Inspections for Relocation Companies
A home inspector recently emailed me with a question about doing pre-inspections for relocation companies. I referred him to a prior post that I wrote on the subject which answered his question. But it reminded me of several cases that I have had involving inspection companies that subcontract out inspections on behalf of relocation companies.…
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My Subrogation Secret Sauce
Insurance companies will sometimes pay a claim to a homeowner and THEN try to recover the financial losses from the home inspector through a process called subrogation. In subrogation, one party succeeds to the rights of another either by law or by contract. In this process, the home inspection insurance company blames the home inspector…
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Joe Ferry’s Fight For YOU Against Meritless Home Inspection Claims
People ask me regularly to explain my business’ mission – and while the end result is easy to quantify (get rid of meritless home inspection claims), its power is best rooted through video, as you can see below in this video that clearly answers WHAT I do and WHY you need me on your side!…
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A Home Inspector Client’s Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish Decision
I remember the advice I received from a savvy real estate investor as I was about to purchase my first house. It was listed at $29,000, and I inquired about whether I should offer $28,000. The investor told me, “If you like the house, don’t lose it for $1,000. Do you know what $1,000 is?…
