Originally Posted by
Jerry Peck
And THAT, I believe, is what WC Jerry was pointing out.
We all use disclaimers for 'hidden and concealed' items, you just don't want it to sound like you are excused because you *did not bother to look*.
There is no reason for hidden and concealed items to have a disclaimer. If they are hidded and concealed as far as I am concerned they are innacessable. I use no disclaimers what so ever in my reports. I do not have a paragraph or 2 explaining away the fact I cannot see thru walls.
I don't and have never understood disclaimers. You are in fact giving clients a reason to dig deaper because they think you are trying to hide or give reason for missing items. Don't give them a reason for thinking you are hiding behind disclaimers and the trust is more readily there. Give them a contract saying that they can only recover 1 or 2 times the inspection fee and they will go after you harder if they find something.
Let them know and firmly believe that we are human and are only there to
*REDUCE* there risk in the home buying process and they will never bother you over some trivial crap. Hide behind contracts and disclaimers and you are adding distrust and deceit to the inspection process (in their mind) Hide behind nothing, be real, honest, professional, dig for all the big items and uncover most if not all of the trivial crap and you will never be bothered. sleep thru an inspection and none of that will matter, they will get you and rightfully so.
No professional is going to miss a bad roof, signs of foundation movement, age and operation of an HVAC system etc etc etc. The rest of the little garbage will more than likely all be picked up on but if you do miss a hole behind a door because you were distracted by the client nipping at you heals instead of showing up at the end where he belongs
or something like that, the world will not fall apart and you will live till tomorrow.
The only disclaimer you need is you did not get on the 14/12 roof that was three stories up and could only look at it thru binoculars.
Piss a client off with stupidity or if you are stupid trying to convince them you are not with brilliant babble only showing your ignorance. Try and speak and word your findings in an overly intillectual manner instead of being short, direct and to the point and you just overstepped your bounds in communicating the concerns in an understandable fashion where all can interpret what you are trying to say.