Seller Liability Form ?

**Joe Reilly** · 10-27-2021, 02:40 PM

Ok, so this inspection happened a while back; however I just found a review talking about it, so now it make me wonder.

If a property is still occupied prior to checking the GFI outlets I tell the home-owner what I am doing and that it may disrupt any devices they have plugged into the outlets controlled by such GFI, such as clocks, timers, smart devices, just so the know. with that said, I have an individual give me a bad review, mind you his wife was present and he was not for the inspection because he said i "corrupted" his timers and that I wasn't worth squat.

After reading his full review it was clearly that he was just upset that his castle had issues and he insisted that items I called out as Safety were only minor issues (examples were GFI's inoperable and missing Smoke Alarms), sorry but in my book they are both safety.

So, after thinking about this I was wondering if anyone has a form they use in which the Seller signs to cover yourself for the stupid things, you know for the traps they set or forgot to tell you about, or in this case, to replace or repair timers etc.

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**Jim Robinson** · 10-27-2021, 03:09 PM

I don't. I would expect that the listing agent would never get it signed in time. It would probably be a good idea in theory, but end up being a PITA. I did have someone claim I "fried" their PC by shutting of the power off during a GFCI test. I didn't lose much sleep over that one. I've had many power outages shut down my PC over the last 30 years, and never once had one fried because of it.

**Joe Reilly** · 10-27-2021, 03:21 PM

I was thinking of getting it signed myself why they are present, which most of them are.

I do recall testing one once only to find that we could not find the GFI reset which ended up being in a closet on the back wall behind towels.

I also look for the GFI reset outlet 1st prior to testing, as sometimes they are behind wall units, refrigerators etc in the garage.

**Jerry Peck** · 10-27-2021, 04:03 PM

I would think that no seller in their right mind would sign anything like that.

I would also suspect that many ... most? ... agents would stop using an inspector who tried to get a seller to sign one.

**Gunnar Alquist** · 10-27-2021, 05:18 PM

Joe, you can't fix stupid.

I have one bad review because the buyer showed up for the inspection at 9:00 and the inspection was confirmed for 12:30. So, it was evidently my fault that he did not read the email confirmation.

I replied in a professional manner, explained that we had confirmed by email 3 days prior to the inspection, and would have rescheduled if we had been informed us of the error.

My suggestion is to reply to the complaint as professionally as you can. Yelp and Google are not going to remove reviews just because the whiner is unreasonable or an ID10T.

**Dom D'Agostino** · 10-27-2021, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by Joe Reilly

a form they use in which the Seller signs to cover yourself for the stupid things,

How in the world does anyone expect to know what that includes, especially in advance of the discovery?

I think the idea should be filed with the "get a credit card deposit in case of a cancelation"; ain't never going to happen.

I do feel your pain for a bum review, however...

**Joe Reilly** · 10-27-2021, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by Dom D'Agostino

How in the world does anyone expect to know what that includes, especially in advance of the discovery?

I think the idea should be filed with the "get a credit card deposit in case of a cancelation"; ain't never going to happen.

I do feel your pain for a bum review, however...

I make them acknowledge my confirmation, which states if they cancel when I am already there they still have to pay, had one last month, drove an hour and 5 minutes after the inspection started he texted the agent saying he was backing out and to cancel the inspection, I made the agent pay me $100 for my time,

**Dom D'Agostino** · 10-28-2021, 04:52 AM

if they cancel when I am already there they still have to pay,

That would certainly warranty some sort sort of payment, or partial payment, I agree.

**Jerry Peck** · 10-28-2021, 06:40 AM

Thread drift ... with different question and answer ... that (arriving at an inspection and having it canceled) happened to me once, but I took it as part of business.

That said, though, I remember talking with some other local inspectors (and maybe even on here) that they had begun accepting credit cards for payments (I never did) and added a section into their their contracts that stated that a cancelation within x hours of the inspection would result in a fee of $x being charged to the card (they got the card number at the time of scheduling).

And a couple of inspectors did have to make those charges to the card due to cancelation at the time if the inspection.

Originally Posted by Joe Reilly

I make them acknowledge my confirmation, which states if they cancel when I am already there they still have to pay, had one last month, drove an hour and 5 minutes after the inspection started he texted the agent saying he was backing out and to cancel the inspection, I made the agent pay me $100 for my time,

**david shapiro** · 10-10-2024, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by Joe Reilly

I was thinking of getting it signed myself why they are present, which most of them are. I do recall testing one once only to find that we could not find the GFI reset which ended up being in a closet on the back wall behind towels. I also look for the GFI reset outlet 1st prior to testing, as sometimes they are behind wall units, refrigerators etc in the garage.

Resets behind wall units or, IMO, regular refrigerators no longer meet the "readily accessible" requirement once that equipment is in the way. It's not that they're hard to find; that doesn't create a violation. Having to remove (or climb over or under) obstacles does.