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  1. #1
    imported_John Smith's Avatar
    imported_John Smith Guest

    Default July TREC Advisor

    Looks like they are starting to get more inspectors. I dont think I recall seeing three different inspectors in one issue before.

    Noticed a trend towards less than acceptable roof inspections. Too bad they are so vague in the details. It would be interesting to understand the real issue.

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  2. #2
    Ted Menelly's Avatar
    Ted Menelly Guest

    Default Re: July TREC Advisor

    Quote Originally Posted by imported_John Smith View Post
    Looks like they are starting to get more inspectors. I dont think I recall seeing three different inspectors in one issue before.

    Noticed a trend towards less than acceptable roof inspections. Too bad they are so vague in the details. It would be interesting to understand the real issue
    .
    I was thinking the same thing. Some how now that the new fine structure is in place they suddenly find inspectors screwing up. A little bit odd if you ask me. Inspectors never made mistakes before the higher fine structure?

    This new deal is going to turn in to a nit picking rip any report apart for the slightest item in or not in a report. A home inspection is not perfection. A home inspection is finding as much as you can in a less than reasonable amount of time. The less than reasonable amount of time comes from the pricing being held down for inspectors marketing so heavily to Realtors and banging out 2 a day and exhausting themselves and finding themselves running faster and harder to get the inspection and report done. Even if their pricing is held up a bit it still amounts to slamming 8, 10, 12 inspections out every week. That is not a reasonable consideration. That is only good for ones pocket but not the health of the inspectors or the clients best interest.

    I do not care what anyone says. Inspect a home in 2 hours and you will find most items. Inspect a home in double the amount of time and have a relaxed amount of time to do a report and any inspector will perform better and do a much better report. There is no argument to that simple fact. Just twisted realities.


  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Default Re: July TREC Advisor

    Ted,
    I would think that you would be all for the nit picking of reports and subsequent fines.

    Granted you might have to suffer a period of lessor income per hour devoted to each report, but it would weed out those not spending the needed time to follow all of the SOP for Texas. It might prevent those interested in an easy quick buck from entering into the Inspection business.

    Inspections are not perfect, but the TREC does lay out the minimum SOP that is acceptable under the lic. law. We all make mistakes in life and we pay for it at times.

    At some point others would be spending the time needed and the rates would increase.


  4. #4
    Ted Menelly's Avatar
    Ted Menelly Guest

    Default Re: July TREC Advisor

    Quote Originally Posted by Garry Sorrells View Post
    Ted,
    I would think that you would be all for the nit picking of reports and subsequent fines.

    Granted you might have to suffer a period of lessor income per hour devoted to each report, but it would weed out those not spending the needed time to follow all of the SOP for Texas. It might prevent those interested in an easy quick buck from entering into the Inspection business.

    Inspections are not perfect, but the TREC does lay out the minimum SOP that is acceptable under the lic. law. We all make mistakes in life and we pay for it at times.

    At some point others would be spending the time needed and the rates would increase.
    If it is something blatant then I agree but in these kinds of cases it is stupidity to nit pic someones report to death. Sometimes even I may not comment on an item other than "no concerns found at this time" To specifically mention 20 items that "there were no concerns found at this time" is absurd. That is taking comlete trust away from an inspector as to whether he looked at it or not. I have seen folks go to court and not touch on something completely or quite as thorough as they should have and the lawyer brings up some other area of a report where they may not have commented on an item other than' "There were no concerns at this time" to try to prove a foolish point like "You honor this only goes to show that the man is inconsitent in his reporting so you can see why my client misread thius section." That is completely asinine as far as I am concerned. Any reasonable judge mediator should see this as foolish. Our reports are broken down in sections and is divided up i those sections. Under one of those subsections, if no concerns are found, then this should be adequate. No, having to mention every particular drain stopper in every sink and tub. If none had faults then "There were no concerns found at this time.

    Those are the things I am talking about. Having to do it otherwise takes away from the lengthy ramble that some disaster in the home should get and get all of your attention to the fine detail.

    Now back to what John brought up

    "Noticed a trend towards less than acceptable roof inspections. Too bad they are so vague in the details. It would be interesting to understand the real issue."

    I said the exact same thing. It would be nice to here about it as in detail to see exactly what was written. If they are going to place a complaint and levy a fine then they should not make us dig deep into records to find out the exact details. They are already stating somewhat what the charge and fine was but we really do not have a clue.

    I am also commenting on leaving inspectors the hell alone unless there is a complaint against them. No complaint then there must be no foul in the eyes of who is paying you. If they find out different down the road then they can bring a complaint up to the particular agency in the particular state where complaints about home inspections are logged and handled. Then if there is substantial (not foolishness) evidence that someone just out and out missed something or did not report something or were in bed with a Realtor then Hang em high. If it were something minor such as wording then tel the inspector he needs to clean things up a bit. If they see something in the rest of the report other than the complaint item bring it to the inspectors attention for future correction .... not just an immediate fine. Those harassment cases are what I am talking about.

    Lets not forget, well you don't know because you are not from Texas, but, The first person that a client is suppose to contact is the inspector, not TREC, not another inspector, Not a lawyer but the original inspector for clarification .... not immediate indictment. It may have been a simple misprint or when you turned it into a PDF and your PDF software had a brain freeze and screwed the document up (which has happened to me before) and it was 10:00 pm and as soon as you turned it into a pdf you sent it off to your client.

    All innocent mistakes that the best person in any profession can make. Hang em on the first slight mistake, ridiculous. Miss something straight out, call the inspector to square it away. No satisfaction, file a complaint. If the inspector is wrong then he gets fined. If everyone follows the proper procedure and it turns out the that there was a dam misprint or typo and the buyer did not call the inspector first, tough.

    A little edit

    Have to be in front of the computer today so my break period is checking emails and Inspection news. Oh yeah, eating, listening to the radio or background noise from the tele :-)


  5. #5
    imported_John Smith's Avatar
    imported_John Smith Guest

    Default Re: July TREC Advisor

    Trying to adhere to TREC SOPs is very difficult. The disclaimer at the front of each TREC report indicates it is not a "code inspection". Inspection without clearly defined acceptance criteria is way to open for interpretation. At the end of the day, we do the best we can with information we can collect in a short amount of time. If TREC chooses to go after an inspector, they will.

    A mechanical engineer friend of mine sold his downtown townhouse. The inspector the buyer hired was pretty incompetent. He filed a complaint with TREC but they basically dismissed it because the house ended up being sold, and the buyer didnt file the complaint. The inspector called out quite a few things that were acceptable but he reported them as deficient. Hopefully he called out all the things that were actually wrong.

    TRECs Report Disclaimers
    "The inspection report may address issues that are code-based or may refer to a particular code; however, this is NOT a code compliance inspection and does NOT verify compliance with manufacturer’s installation instructions. The inspection does NOT imply insurability or warrantability of the structure or its components. Although some safety issues may be addressed in this report, this inspection is NOT a safety/code inspection, and the inspector is NOT required to identify all potential hazards. "


  6. #6
    Nolan Kienitz's Avatar
    Nolan Kienitz Guest

    Default Re: July TREC Advisor

    All the details for each filing are available. All you have to do is go to the TREC offices in Austin and ask to see all the filings.

    Actually ... I think there were 5 inspectors noted in the recent TREC Advisor.


  7. #7
    Ted Menelly's Avatar
    Ted Menelly Guest

    Default Re: July TREC Advisor

    Quote Originally Posted by Nolan Kienitz View Post
    All the details for each filing are available. All you have to do is go to the TREC offices in Austin and ask to see all the filings.

    Actually ... I think there were 5 inspectors noted in the recent TREC Advisor.

    And we should have to drive half way to Hell (literally) and back to see what would be so simple to post or pull up on line?


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