Home Inspector successfully sued

I am excited that this case has come before the public and that BC home inspectors are taking notice. In my view the #1 reason this inspector was sued (granted none of us have all the facts) is that he appeared to rush the inspection and as a result missed looking at one side of the house. A proper inspection by a well trained inspector takes time. The only way to speed up an inspection is to start leaving components out of the inspection process. In my view - the #1 reason inspectors rush their inspections is because they are pressured by the public and the real estate industry to offer inspections for $400 or less and/or 3 hours or less.

A good inspection takes up to a whole day (5-8 hours) for an average house, longer if the house has considerable defects, it should also cost $700 up to $1000+ depending on what the inspector is bundling in their service. Inspectors that take 5-8 hours to inspect a house get harassed regularly by many of the Realtors. 'You are going to take how long?', 'Aren't you done yet?', 'I have to lock up in an hour'. The average time an inspector spends on site in the industry is 3 hours or less for a house (1 hour or less for an apartment). I will often spend 2-3 hours on just the exterior, crawlspace and attic alone.

The answer to this industries problems is for the public to not immediately ask 'How Much' as their first question while looking to choose an inspector.

We also need legislation that prevents the referral of a inspector by a Realtor (conflict of interest) and further restricts the Realtor's ability to interfere with the inspection process (time on site and commenting on inspector's findings). Those that do a glorified checklist and are not capable of doing a more thorough inspection will eventually be weeded out and the standards of the industry will improve accordingly.

The first step rests with the public. They must recognize that they get what they pay for and that quality does cost money. Is this really the area in this process where you want to cut corners? Is there any other person in the transaction that has your wellbeing as their sole concern?