Agent prevents home inspector disclosure
Q: When we bought our home, we noticed that the exterior paint looked worn and that the knots in the wood siding were showing through as dark circles. We pointed this out to our home inspector and asked for his opinion.
But our agent interrupted and said, “You just need to cover the knots with shellac.” The inspector made no further comment and said nothing about the paint in his report. Sixteen months later, the paint was peeling on two sides of the building. We had to sand, scrape, prime and repaint the entire exterior. What is your opinion about the inspector’s liability?
A: The prime directive in home inspection is to report all defects that are visible, accessible and within the scope of the inspection. If a buyer points out a specific defect and asks the inspector for an opinion, there is no excuse for omitting that disclosure from the report. An appropriate disclosure, in this case, would have been, “Exterior paint finish appears worn, and discoloration is apparent at the knots in the wood siding. Further evaluation by a licensed painting contractor is recommended.”
Your agent’s comment was particularly foolish. Excusing a defective condition by proposing an easy fix is an invitation to major liability. Unless that agent is a licensed painting contractor, that kind of advice is outside of the agent’s professional expertise. It's the kind of remark one would expect from a proverbial “used car salesperson,” not wanting a buyer to kick the tires.
If the agent had withheld this comment, the home inspector would probably have offered an opinion of his own, verbally as well as in the report. What those comments and disclosures might have been, we will never know.
The home inspector in this case can be regarded as negligent, while the agent can be viewed as “slick.” Each, in its own way, was a professional misstep.
Q: We have an electric water heater in the closet of our master bathroom. It is about 10 years old, and a friend told me that it should have a drain pan in case of leakage. The problem is, the house has concrete slab floors, and the closet is not located at an exterior wall. So, there’s no way to run a pipe from the pan to the outside. What do you recommend?
A: The water heater has already lived beyond its normal expected life. As it becomes older, it will eventually leak, resulting in considerable interior damage to baseboards, drywall, furniture, etc. If there is no way to install a pipe from the pan to the exterior, you should hire a plumber to move the fixture to a more practical location. At that point, given the age of the fixture and the cost of relocating it, replacement with a new water heater would be a practical and advisable approach.
• Distributed by Action Coast Publishing. Questions to Barry Stone can be emailed to barry@housedetective.com.