When an Agent Gives Your Client’s Inspection Report to a Different Buyer

The inspection report you create is solely for your client; that’s what your contract explicitly states – or, it should.  Your obligation is to your client and to no one else.  This protects you from the liability that can arise from having third parties get ahold of your report and rely on it when perhaps it’s out of date, since an inspection report is truly a snapshot in time.

But what happens when a third party does get your inspection report, either through your client’s permission or by other means? This typically happens when your client (the prospective buyer) gives a copy of the report to their real estate agent. But what if your client decides not to purchase the property and their agent passes along your report to someone else, like a different prospective buyer?

You can still protect yourself from future legal entanglements – even if they ultimately come to nothing ­– by inserting some language into the template for every inspection report you create. 

Here’s some sample language you can include:

This report is the property of the client who paid me to generate it based on my original inspection. You should understand that home conditions can change quickly.  If you’re reading this and you are NOT my client, you should be SUSPICIOUS about why someone gave you an OLD report that you CAN’T rely on.  My advice is that you hire me to do a new inspection for you.  Since I’m already familiar with the home, you will have the advantage of me having inspected it twice.  We’ll do a thorough inspection of the home to assess its CURRENT condition, and provide you with a fresh report that is LEGALLY yours to rely upon.

Always put this section on the same page of every report (page 2, or the last page, etc.).

Then, when someone who isn’t your client asks you to review and okay the report you created from your previous inspection for a different client, direct them to that page and ask them to read it first and then call you back.

Remind your clients – current ones and new ones you hope will hire you – that a home inspection report is like a weather report:  anything can change at any time. So, why take the risk of relying on old information about one of the largest purchases they’ll ever make? 

###

Find more legal clauses and documents you can download for free at www.nachi.org/documents.

Read InterNACHI’s articles about inspections, business and marketing, and legal issues at www.nachi.org/articles.