Home Inspector sued for $200K

The recent award against a home inspector in the amount of $200K send shock waves through the home inspection industry. Many in the industry disagree with the findings of the judge, and feel the inspector was unfairly prosecuted. I feel (based on the facts presented) that the judgment is totally warranted and hopefully represents a turning point for the responsibilities that home inspectors must accept.

For me the whole case rests on the following statements made by the judge:

"Mr. Toth took about 30 minutes to inspect the roof and the “rest of the exterior of the House”

"37] I find that Mr. Toth made no inspection of the vertical beams on the east side of the House. I find that an inspection of two of those beams would have been easily accessible through an unlocked door off the lower balcony. This door led into a room that was otherwise inaccessible from inside the House. I find that even a cursory examination of the two beams in this area would have revealed to Mr. Toth that they were rotten."

This to me, shows a complete lack of regard by Mr. Toth's of his client's liability. Too many in this industry are trying to make a fast buck. Too many inspectors schedule 2 or more inspections in a day. Too many inspectors hide behind their contracts to provide a mediocre level of service to their clients.

The facts are, that to do this job right, you MUST take the time to thoroughly inspect and investigate the dwelling of interest. This is not about how fast you can fill in the check marks on your pre-printed and limited inspection report. This is not about finding excuses on why you did not need to look at a certain portion of the dwelling.

An inspector should be doing everything possible to see ALL of the dwelling. If they need a ladder to see a beam that is up high up, then go get the ladder and do so (but wait, a very large number of inspectors do not even carry ladders with them - oops). If an inspector needs to crawl through some bush to access one side of a dwelling then they should do so.

A word to the inspector - STOP RUSHING and do your job!

It takes time to do this job right, the public needs to realize this and demand a thorough inspector. This means they will have to pay more for this service. You cannot expect a thorough inspector that takes the better part of a day (or even longer) to complete an inspection, to charge the same as one who does two inspections a day. This does not mean however, just because an inspector is charging a higher than average fee, that they are providing a quality service. As your inspector how long the inspection will take, how long the report will take, and what will be included in the report.


The public needs to ask “Why are we hiring an inspector?” If you really are not worried and are only meeting a requirement of the mortgage company then by all means, choose the cheapest & fastest inspector you can find. If you REALLY WANT TO KNOW what the condition of the dwelling is so that you can make an informed decision on if this purchase is right for you then demand quality. Choose someone by the type of the report they will provide and how long they will spend at site and in the preparation of the report. Choose someone who is looking out for YOUR best interests.

The most important requirement is that YOU need to choose YOUR inspector. Do not rely on your Realtor to choose for you. They are, in the vast majority of cases, looking for inspectors that do not take too long (3 hours or less), do not (in their mind) charge too much ($250 - $450), and often (again in their mind) an inspector that does not “blow deficiencies out of proportion”. Remember, our job as inspectors, is to identify deficiencies, large and small, that effect your safety or represent a financial liability down the road. It is your job as a buyer to decide if you can live with those deficiencies. We as inspectors SHOULD NOT BE passing or failing a home.

Almost any deficiency can be fixed, it only takes time and money. The question is, do you have the time or money to address, and does the selling price take these deficiencies into consideration?

Lower Mainland Real Estate Market

If you have been following the news lately or talking with your Realtor, you are probably under the impression that the Real Estate in the Lower Mainland is hot and feeling pressured to get into the market before it is 'too late'.

But is this an accurate assessment of the current market???

I have personally been tracking the number of sales (not the selling values, just the quantities of sales) of nine cities in the lower mainland since September of 2008 and plotting the number of sales for each city and posting to my website. These graphs clearly show that we are not out of the woods yet. The market generally peaked during the sumer of 2009 and has declined ever since to levels that are close to those of Dec 2008 when the market had crashed. It will remain to be seen if the market starts a general uptrend in February/March 2010 (markets typically have slow December & January periods)

Of specific interest is the ratio of active listings (yellow) to the number of sales for the previous months (blue) that is shown on the last page. This allows a very quick indication of whether the particular city represents a buyers market or a sellers market. Other than in West Vancouver where there generally are few condos listed at any one point in time, the other cities have constitantly shown this segment of the marketplace to be a buyer's market (lots of listings and few sales). The single family homes are a bit harder to say as there generally is not as much of a spread between the listings and sales (except in Surrey where the availability always exceeds the demand by many times).

The purpose of this blog entry is to ask that you become an educated consumer and do not let yourself be led by the hype of the media or the Real Estate industry. The latter, of course, have a vested interest in keeping people interested in buying. They need to survive and can only do so if they sell, who can blame them. But do not let this hype pressure you into buying beyond your means or before you are ready.

There presently is lots of fish in the sea and you have options. Make sure you are aware of this and take advantage of these options.