Thread: BC Agents File Multiple Complaints Against Home Inspector

A real estate agent in British Columbia has filed a complaint against a home inspector claiming the inspector behaves unprofessionally. His methods may be a bit unorthodix but on the latest inspection to draw a complaint from the agent the inspector's client is VERY, VERY pleased with the inspector for saving him from buying a money pit.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent (and the guilty).

Real-estate agent and home inspector face off over home purchase

September 15, 2010

[The inspector] noted a lot of crappy stuff about the house on Rutledge Street in Victoria in his inspection. But what he observed about the washroom was particularly striking.

“A big fat fellow like myself only gets 1/2 bum on toilet seat,” the Vancouver-based home inspector wrote in his report to his client.

To illustrate his point that it was difficult to sit on the main-floor toilet because it was too close to a wall, [the inspector] even drew an image of an individual on the throne. A large portion of the person’s bottom was hanging off the seat.

. . .

The purchase didn’t go through, and [the buyer's] realtor, [the agent], felt that [the inspector] was full of crap.

On July 7 of this year, [the agent] filed a complaint against [the inspector] —a UBC-trained architect with more than four decades of experience as a home inspector—with the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of B.C., accusing him of being unprofessional.

But [the buyer] is pleased with the service rendered by [the inspector].

“He showed me all that crap and, basically, I feel that if [the inspector] okayed the house, the sale would have gone through and I would have ended up with a piece of crap,” [the buyer] told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview from Victoria.

In his report to [the buyer], [the inspector] stated that the property is “all bulldozer ready”.

[The buyer] says he’ll hire [the inspector] the next time he looks at a property.

. . .

[The agent] declined to talk about his complaint when reached by the Straight.

But in his complaint addressed to ASTTBC registrar John Shortreid, [the agent] said about [the inspector]: “After going on his website I found many things stated that lead me to believe he is somewhat jaded for whatever reason towards my profession and indeed a troubled soul, but that is no excuse for his lack of professionalism.”

[The agent] has it right about [the inspector's] feelings toward realtors.

According to [the inspector], many realtors want to control the home-inspection process so that sales go through swiftly and they can get their commissions. He claimed that realtors usually recommend to buyers inspectors they’ve had “luck” with in previous transactions.

“The more thorough the report is, the more they may have to reveal to the next prospective party buying the place, or the more they now have to work because they have to go back to the other realtor and back to the owner and say, ‘Look, these things were discovered,’” [the inspector] told the Straight in a phone interview.

He noted that many realtors prefer a “checklist inspector”—one who doesn’t look closely at a property except to make sure that it has a roof, doors, and windows.

“For, I don’t know, $350 or whatever, the client gets a three-ring binder, a nice glossy three-ring binder saying that everything is okay, and once they move in, then I get the phone calls saying, ‘Guess what? This whole inspection process seems to be a fraud,’” [the inspector] said.

In response to [the agent’s] complaint, [the inspector] wrote Shortreid on August 13. He noted that the case isn’t about a client who wasn’t happy with his services. According to the home inspector, it’s about “a realtor who lost a sale”.

. . .

[The inspector] has been through this before. According to him, [the agent’s] complaint is the fourth filed by a realtor against him.

. . .

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WE HAVE FOUND A HERO!

I would pay good money to see this report he wrote along with his artwork.

rick

I couldn't find the inspectors name on the CAHPI BC find an inspector search for Victoria.

Find a Home Inspector

The inspector regardless should not be writing reports and using descriptive narratives as alleged in the complaint, its simply unprofessional. Whether or not the complaint falls within the pervue of the licencing body is another story.

I'm with Rick on this one

Originally Posted by Raymond Wand

I couldn't find the inspectors name on the CAHPI BC find an inspector search for Victoria.

Find a Home Inspector

The inspector regardless should not be writing reports and using descriptive narratives as alleged in the complaint, its simply unprofessional. Whether or not the complaint falls within the pervue of the licencing body is another story.

Even if he used particular wording that is not quite what most would use he still did his job. Like him or not. Think of him as unprofessional or not he was looking out for the client as he should be doing.

I have told several clients over the years that the home I was inspecting was, how did he say that, "Bulldozer ready". I had a complaint about using the terminology of shoddy workmanship to a bulders super after several attempts of being nice and trying to explain why something was wrong and the man looking at me like I had 2 heads. That did not make me unprofessional. I was forced into the situation because nothing was sinking in to the man about the sub contractors shoddy workmanship.

The statement about

"According to [the inspector], many Realtors want to control the home-inspection process so that sales go through swiftly and they can get their commissions. He claimed that Realtors usually recommend to buyers inspectors they’ve had “luck” with in previous transactions."

is so true it is sickening. I have asked several Realtors recently about how other inspectors word this or that. They have showed me and I understand full well why they refer those inspectors. Nothing really held back but just softened up so much it appeared to not be as bad as it really was. Or in some cases the concerns in each section were all just stuffed into a short paragraph together and it looked like there were no concerns because the list was so short looking. Nothing separated to individual points and absolutely no comments what so ever about any concern at all. Just a list in 2 or 3 short sentences. I found this, I found this, I found this. Absolutely nothing about the extremely obvious cause for those concern. A dirty filter or AC condenser coil or evaporator coil....Have serviced...thats it. Absolutely no mention as to the efficiency loss or anything for that matter. That is about as check list as you can get and still be a narrative report.

Obviously you know and I know and everyone knows that there is not a Realtor out there that does not wish that home inspectors just fell out of existence. Just because an inspector elaborates (I am not talking about the cute drawing) about not being able to have room to fit on a toilet seat because it is to close to a wall.....well...he made his point to the client without the Realtor being able to wash it out with a quick brush off and on to the next concern

I had one recently (DFW area HIs know of homes in and near the "M Streets") that I told my clients (investors) that the best option would be to doze it and start new, but it is a historical section and many different rules apply. If the front elevation of the home is retained they can scrub everything behind it and start over.

Anyway ... clients decided to back off the property and this past week I got a call from what turned out to be another potential buyer for the property and he wanted to go over my very thorough and detailed report so he could better understand everything.

Once I was able to figure out just who he was I told him that I could not discuss the report with him as he was not my client and that it was the property of my client and that if he wanted me to do an inspection for him and discuss "that" report I would be more than happy to schedule.

He decided against such.

Ahhh ... the movement of our reports once they leave our e-mail outbox!

[quote=Raymond Wand;144938
The inspector regardless should not be writing reports and using descriptive narratives as alleged in the complaint, its simply unprofessional.[/quote]

And that reflects on all inspectors, regardless of how you view the guy's approach to reporting. Based upon the feedback that I get from people regarding their experiences with inspectors, we can't afford to have such inspectors in the field if we are to have the respect that we feel we deserve.

Originally Posted by Eric Barker

And that reflects on all inspectors, regardless of how you view the guy's approach to reporting. Based upon the feedback that I get from people regarding their experiences with inspectors, we can't afford to have such inspectors in the field if we are to have the respect that we feel we deserve.

Words... That what this is going to come down to and I think we are seeing many More Complaints Against Home Inspector then ever before.

Agents are working harder and harder on every sale. Most agents only have one deal going at a time...

But we are going to have our words used against us at every turn.

Best

Ron

Originally Posted by Raymond Wand

I couldn't find the inspectors name on the CAHPI BC find an inspector search for Victoria.

Find a Home Inspector

The inspector regardless should not be writing reports and using descriptive narratives as alleged in the complaint, its simply unprofessional. Whether or not the complaint falls within the pervue of the licencing body is another story.

It was Ed Witzke from Vancouver. He's a veteran inspector, with ASST, the independent home inspectors of BC.

Originally Posted by Eric Barker

And that reflects on all inspectors, regardless of how you view the guy's approach to reporting. Based upon the feedback that I get from people regarding their experiences with inspectors, we can't afford to have such inspectors in the field if we are to have the respect that we feel we deserve.

They may be true but in the case of one bad apple rotting the rest. I am not in that line of thinking. One bad supermarket employee does not keep me from going to that store.

The man has had several complaints as it says. Well then I guess that I will give that word several the benefit of doubt. It still comes down to ...I heard nothng of complaints form the clients. Where are they in this little note. They are apparently pleased with Archie Bunker. I may not talk like Archie Bunker but I have absolutely no doubt where the character was coming from or what he was talking about.

I had a man give me a review about how unprofessional I was. This was not a client. It was a marketer. After weeks of calling and me sayin....no thank you......I finally had someone else answer the phone and tell him it was the wrong number. The man was outraged that I had someone play the game with me and wished it on no one to have to deal with such unprofessionalism. That review will stick with me for years because he....was the ass. I finaly got the fool to stop calling. To do so I was unprofessional, Should the fool have written a bad review on me. Not. He was the harassing fool. I just got rid of him.

Careful who you may call unprofessional. You may not know all behind the story.

As far as the bold red above. I did an inspection the other day for a seriously professional man. He called me the most professional man he has met in years Go figure. His efforts to promote me has already landed me a couple more jobs. Now that is professionalism. One man does not ruin all. One bad review from a fool does not ruin all.

Yeah yeah ranting

Look, some times the language has to match the reader or listener. Obviously, the client understood and spoke the same language. So I am giving the guy a break.

Now, as for the real issue: that real estate agents meddle so much with the inspection process, I believe that some thing needs to be done about that. It would be interesting to know if there are any ethics violations in turning over a confidential report to a third party. May be real estate agents need to get hit with some ethics complaints. Not that it would do any good. But it might be fun to rattle some chains.

The man is a certified and degreed architect. He doesn't have to belong to CAHPI or any new HI organization that RW is currently pushing. He is Technically proficient and at a higher level and experience (since the 60s been doing inspections) then most every "HI" type in BC.

If he does his reports "old school" and uses stick diagrams on a photo to "explain" the "issue" at his customer's level, so be it.

He is highly proficient in what he does, he is not limited as a generalist "home inspector" might be, and he is credentialed, experienced and certified.

Regards to "realtors" he simply quotes snippets of published (by OTHERS) materials. Nothing unprofessional about that. I don't disagree with his compilation of select quotations regarding "realtors".

We're all free to write what we want.... until it gets you sued or your license taken away there's no problem with it. This guy could run the risk of the latter.... whether it's justified or not.

Personally, I always try to stick to just writing a good technical report.... stating problems, locations and recommendations. IMO this serves buyers the best. While colorful, story-like reports can be entertaining to read they ultimately fall short of helping a buyer.... again, IMO.

HG wrote:

The man is a certified and degreed architect. He doesn't have to belong to CAHPI or any new HI organization that RW is currently pushing.

Don't ever accuse me of pushing CAHPI! If you knew what has gone on with CAHPI and National Certification you would know that I am not a pusher of anything.

And I don't give a frig whether he is an architect and P. Eng, or has a Phd, there is a requirement to act professionally and even more so since you pointed out he is an Architect!

Phd, eh? Pile it higher and deeper!

Originally Posted by Raymond Wand

HG wrote:



Don't ever accuse me of pushing CAHPI! If you knew what has gone on with CAHPI and National Certification you would know that I am not a pusher of anything.

And I don't give a frig whether he is an architect and P. Eng, or has a Phd, there is a requirement to act professionally and even more so since you pointed out he is an Architect!

Phd, eh? Pile it higher and deeper!

If he did his inspection properly, (i.e. not in a clown suit) and conducted himself in a professional manner while on-site, he fulfilled the requirement.... He was hired by a potential buyer and obviously used his "people skills" to write a report that was thorough enough to piss off a seller's agent, AND please his client who was SO pleased that the one inspection led/will lead to others,

Whether he's got a Phd, or is an architect, or a condom wrangler at The Bunny Ranch, while he's doing an inspection he's none of those things, he's an inspector and can only represent himself as such.

I wish I had hired him instead of the "Inspector" I did hire.