Article: Key Elements for Pre-Inspection Agreements

[Jamie Daniel]

Home inspectors are professionally trained to identify issues and risks with a home and may suggest recommendations based on the inspection. A pre-inspection agreement allows you to set the exact terms of your inspection and helps insulate you.


Key Elements for Pre-Inspection Agreements

• Home inspection fee and due date.
• Exclusions of the inspection. The inspector does not include engineering or architectural services.
• Inclusions of the inspection. Clearly, describe the scope of services.
• Extras that can be included in the inspection for a fee.
• Limitations of liability. See a lawyer and state provisions.
• Dispute resolution process in the event of a claim.
• There is no guarantee or warranty on the inspection.
• All changes to the agreement must be in writing.

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[Jerry Peck]

A pre-inspection agreement does not get an inspector out of a bad inspection/inspection report.

A "pre-inspection agreement" is actually "contract for services", so why not just call it what it is: "Contract For Services".

If the inspection is poorly done (such as doing nothing more than the minimum required by the Standards of Practice which is referenced in the contract for services) and/or the inspection report provides little useful information (such as referring every thing to qualified contractors ... which can be taken as an indication that the inspector recognizes their lack of qualifications), then neither the inspection nor the report meets the standards of practice of a profession which was founded on the principles of providing useful information to the client..