pre & post sales home inspections

[Riograndeelectric]

how many of you perform private Electrical inspection on pre and post home sales?
do you have a standard form you use to type up the report or do you use a hand written form.do you list code articles next to any violations?



for My company I perform a hand written rough draft on a legal pad. then come back home type it up a a blank letter head email with in 2 days to the customer and the Realtor. I do not have a note book computer and can not be johnny on the spot with my inspection like th Home inspectors can.

 

[hurk27]

At least a note pad to write things down to later research, laptop is great for checking things on the spot, and there are HI manuals that will guide you as to the years things changed in code, many things done now wasn't required back then and many time an HI will flag it even though it met code at the time of installation.

also depends on the position your taking, we do follow ups behind HI's when we are asked for an opinion, but you must be careful as you can be put in a position of causing sale to fall through. I have done exactly that, but I stood my grounds as the house was not fit to live in and had so many violations that my report made the HI's look like a comic book, the Realtor took me to court, but they lost, Here in Indiana HI's are required to take a test and get a state license's, so we don't get many calls other then to repair what the HI found, and we quit advertising for home electrical inspection as this wasn't our prime job, but once in a great while we get called, we just don't side with anyone, and inspect the house as if we don't know either party, this way if you land in court, and you have done your job, they can't pin anything on you or that your were biased,
remember if you do inspect homes you must keep in mind that installations that met code at the time it was installed will still meet code because it is grandfathered, so this takes some time to do the research to find out when codes were changed.

 

[gadfly56]

At least a note pad to write things down to later research, laptop is great for checking things on the spot, and there are HI manuals that will guide you as to the years things changed in code, many things done now wasn't required back then and many time an HI will flag it even though it met code at the time of installation.

also depends on the position your taking, we do follow ups behind HI's when we are asked for an opinion, but you must be careful as you can be put in a position of causing sale to fall through. I have done exactly that, but I stood my grounds as the house was not fit to live in and had so many violations that my report made the HI's look like a comic book, the Realtor took me to court, but they lost, Here in Indiana HI's are required to take a test and get a state license's, so we don't get many calls other then to repair what the HI found, and we quit advertising for home electrical inspection as this wasn't our prime job, but once in a great while we get called, we just don't side with anyone, and inspect the house as if we don't know either party, this way if you land in court, and you have done your job, they can't pin anything on you or that your were biased,
remember if you do inspect homes you must keep in mind that installations that met code at the time it was installed will still meet code because it is grandfathered, so this takes some time to do the research to find out when codes were changed.

One thing you might do to help cover yourself is to make it clear up front that you will NOT be offering to repair anything you find. It will hurt to take a pass on the potential business, but at least no one can accuse you of trying to find faults only to benefit yourself.

 

[LarryFine]

I have been called to critique pre-sale home inspections, which is usually fun, but not for a post-sale.

That's more of doing an estimate as you sort through the pre-sale inspection and go over what was missed.