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In an effort to educate home buyers, sellers and real estate professionals about real estate home inspections, the California Real Estate Inspection Association (CREIA) recently released information on three key areas that often lead to misunderstandings between home inspectors and clients.
The biggest issue, according to CREIA, is that people don't understand the precise role of a certified home inspector. One of the biggest misconceptions is that a licensed home inspector is a specialist who will repair home deficiencies.
It's important to remember that becoming a home inspector means an individual provides a professional judgment on the condition of the house. CREIA states that the "services of a home inspector are those of an inspection generalist, who is not acting as an expert" in a field where further certification may be necessary.
The second misunderstanding "is confusing a generalist home inspection with that of a code complication inspection performed by public sector building and safety inspectors." In the state of California, it's the buyer's responsibility to contact the appropriate government agency and find out what the code is for specific issues. Any good home inspection school will emphasize this point with students.
Finally there is the issue of home inspectors estimating the costs to fix any deficiencies. Home buyers may have the idea that home inspectors can diagnose a problem, make an estimate and then go right ahead and fix it themselves. CREIA makes it clear this isn't the licensed home inspector's role: "Even if qualified, an inspector offering to perform repair work on any reported defect is in contravention of state law." In other words, home inspectors in California can diagnose the problem, but they can't go ahead and repair it - that's someone else's job.
Home buyers, sellers and real estate professionals are advised to check with local agencies to see what laws apply to home inspectors in their respective states. Anyone who is starting on a home inspection career should make sure they understand these fundamentals and then communicate them to their clients and partners in the real estate industry.
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