Thread: Client?

A few client/mold questions
Let’s say you are contacted by a buyer to do a general home inspection and a mold inspection. You complete both inspections. A couple of day’s later results are back from the lab. You go over the results with the borrower (your client) and out the door they go, wouldn’t live there if it were the last place on earth. You did this for your client and no one else. Of course both realtors and the seller manage to get copies from, not me. Say a week goes by, phone rings; Sir we are ready for your final inspection, it’s all cleaned up! The buyers are my client, they paid and walked. I don’t believe I would be obligated to do anything. Is this correct? Another thing; can I even ethically do the clearance if I wanted to? I was hired to do an inspection and stop. This has not happened. Just considering different scenarios.

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My response to any kind of reinspection is that the contractor that did the work is the responsible party. They should provide documentation that it was done and done correctly. This applies to any correction/repair.

Your deal and obligation to your clients is done.
Now if they (the sellers) want to hire you to do another inspection, that is their prerogative, their money is just as green as anyone else's.

As others have said, your duty was to your client.

Now, you could come back and do a clearance test. You have the before remediation testing results so doing a clearance test would be fairly simple. But then you would need to issue an All is Clear letter! If you are not properly trained to do clearance testing and or you did not write the remediation plan, you might not want to do this.

If all of the training you have is the Pro-Lab or the ESA one/two day course, I would not do it. In fact I would stop testing for mold, that is not enough training.

As far as the "final inspection" goes, your job is done. If your original client was still the buyer they have your report listing all of the defficiencies that you found, including the mold.

I have performed re-inspections in the past (mainly to ensure my client that something had been done), but I have a disclaimer on the re-inspection stating that since I wasn't present when the repairs were made, I accept no responsibility for the quality of the materials or the work performed. I am only verifying that something had been to to items #a, b, c, etc. If they want a guarantee or warranty on the repair that needs to come from the contractor that performed the repair. I also have them sign another agreement stating all of the above.

I notify my client when they call for the re-inspection that I am basically taking their money because I will accept none of the responsibility and that they can usually look for themselves to see if something was done. Surprisingly some still pay me to do it.

I will never re-inspect for mold, LBP, etc. Notifying them that mold is present and maybe getting a few samples is one thing, but abatement should be performed by a professional and that is who should place their stamp of approval on it.

Sounds good. Thanks

Originally Posted by Jon Randolph

As far as the "final inspection" goes, your job is done. If your original client was still the buyer they have your report listing all of the defficiencies that you found, including the mold.

I have performed re-inspections in the past (mainly to ensure my client that something had been done), but I have a disclaimer on the re-inspection stating that since I wasn't present when the repairs were made, I accept no responsibility for the quality of the materials or the work performed. I am only verifying that something had been to to items #a, b, c, etc. If they want a guarantee or warranty on the repair that needs to come from the contractor that performed the repair. I also have them sign another agreement stating all of the above.

I notify my client when they call for the re-inspection that I am basically taking their money because I will accept none of the responsibility and that they can usually look for themselves to see if something was done. Surprisingly some still pay me to do it.

I will never re-inspect for mold, LBP, etc. Notifying them that mold is present and maybe getting a few samples is one thing, but abatement should be performed by a professional and that is who should place their stamp of approval on it.

This is a great take on re-inspections.... I totally agree and do roughly the same.