Originally Posted by
Bob Keeley
Need to know where I stand about Inspector responsibilities. Should a home inspector open a split system air handler to see it’s condition?
In my opinion, absolutely - home inspectors 'should' open those covers.
Whether or not they are 'required' to, though, is a different matter - that 'requirement' will be in the Standard of Practice (SoP) they work under.
Regardless of what is stated as 'required' in the SoP, if 50% or more of the home inspectors in that area open those covers, that is the 'standard' to be used in that area, 'required' by the SoP or not.
Should the inspector have inspected the motor, or is that beyond the scope of our contract with him?
Opening the cover and 'looking inside' and 'inspecting the motor' are not synonymous. They 'should' open the cover to 'look at' the general overall condition, such as being dirty, however, 'looking at' is not the same as 'inspecting the motor'.
Any evidence of a not clean coil, blower, etc, would typically be reported as 'have a/c system cleaned and serviced'.
Thus, the end responsibility would lie with whomever did that 'cleaning and servicing', provided that was recommended.
Which gets us to what Nick said:
Originally Posted by
Nick Ostrowski
Bob, what did your inspector say about the air handler/ HVAC system in your report? Was it simply documented as operable or was any recommendation made to have repairs made or the system serviced?