04-10-2007, 01:58 AM
|
 |
Member
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Houston, Texas
Posts: 222
|
|
|
Re: Should a Home Inspector do this?
I have done a few of these kinds of inspections in the past for individual tenants but never for a collection of them. In my experience the client has unrealistic expectations about what your inspection and report is going to do for them. Many labor under the misconception that they will hand your report to the building owner and that he will gasp in surprise as he reads it and say "My God! I didn’t know!" and that he will then suddenly start getting everything fixed.
That is just not the way it works with building owners who rent run down properties to people who can’t afford to move someplace better. I know it sounds harsh and callous , but if the tenant is in a position to do better then they need to walk and find a better place to live. If not, then handing the landlord an inspection report they struggled to pay for in the first place just gives the bum of a landlord one more thing to ignore that day.
Jerry is right, if these folks push hard enough they may well find the health or fire department pushing them out as they get their wish of "making the landlord do something". If the landlord is forced to bite the bullet and does upgrade his property (or sells to someone else who will) then the tenants may find that they can not afford the higher rent that comes with the property after the upgrade.
This is a very tight ethical rope for you to walk as an inspector. Do you take the tenant’s money now under circumstances like these? Do you really think there is an expert witness payday waiting down the road? If so, do the inspection pro bono or on speculation of future income.
Frankly, I don’t have the heart to do it anymore after I have figured out the true value of my report for this kind of customer. That’s not a putdown of the client by the way! It’s the landlord that ultimately negates the value of my service and make a waste of the fee the client paid. The client would be better off using that money for a deposit on a better place in most cases.
Just my opinion mind you.
|