Nolan Kienitz Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 The Texas Court of Appeals has overruled a lower court in favor of an inspector. This may close the door (at least in Texas) on clients filing claims against inspectors using the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. To read more, Click here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Interesting. I'm not sure justice was served, though......although it's hard to say without seeing all of it first hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolan Kienitz Posted January 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 I was just chatting with another TX inspector about this and without seeing the report, not having been there, knowing more particulars it is not wise to "opine" about precisely what the inspector did or did not do OR should have done. The 'win' (if it can be called such) are the comments about the appeals court stating the DTPA act is not a valid path for such a suit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 I understand. There's a lot going on there; without seeing the report, who knows? I'm also curious how anyone can make a judgment as to how long water stains have been present; the second guy in was making a lot of comments that would be hard to prove. Lots of opinions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 I understand. There's a lot going on there; without seeing the report, who knows? I'm also curious how anyone can make a judgment as to how long water stains have been present; the second guy in was making a lot of comments that would be hard to prove. Lots of opinions. The 'more than 1 year' comment by the 2nd inspector is very subjective and like Kurt says, it would be hard to prove. It comes down to an inspector being caught between the State minimum requirements and a more discerning inspector that came along later. There's always an inspector who knows more or discerns more, than you, regardless of how much you know. TIJ 101. My defense against this happening to me is to make certain that the client is happy. When they're happy, the lid stays on and the contents don't go under a magnifying glass. One thing that seems to make them happy is to be thorough to the nth degree. Don't miss it. Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Katen Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Well, it's going to go back to a new trial where the plaintiff sues under a different legal theory - probably negligence. Seems like suing him under the DTP was a poor call on the part of the plaintiff's lawyer. I don't know about that part of Texas, but across large parts of the American West there are times of year when a small bit of deduction could tell you if a roof leak stain were more than 12 months old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 I suppose.....but, you're the sort of person that could deduce it correctly due to your experience. I don't think there's any credible reference that would indicate how long a stain was present. IOW, it's a highly personal analysis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Katen Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 I suppose.....but, you're the sort of person that could deduce it correctly due to your experience. I don't think there's any credible reference that would indicate how long a stain was present. IOW, it's a highly personal analysis. I agree that you can't look at a stain and proclaim how old it is just by its appearance -- the same goes for rot, by the way. I'm talking about weather patterns. We don't get significant rain from June to October, sometimes November. This particular year, with the exception of a few days in November, we haven't had significant rain in 8 months. If I inspected a house tomorrow and saw water stains on the underside of the sheathing I could probably deduce that they were at least 8 months old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolan Kienitz Posted January 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 And then there is this link (posted below) about the current Texas drought. However ... the drought is current. The complaint is 'aged'. Texas Drought Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Katen Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 So does this mean that inspectors in TX have carte blanche to be deceptive? Can an inspector exaggerate or invent his qualifications without any risk of recourse? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghentjr Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Can an inspector exaggerate or invent his qualifications without any risk of recourse? That happens all the time, doesn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Can an inspector exaggerate or invent his qualifications without any risk of recourse? That happens all the time, doesn't it? It's the foundation for our professional societies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n/a19 Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 I don't know the specifics of the case but most people don't realize how mold can be toxic and create damage beyond belief. The housing market is saturated with foreclosure and there's not a single person assigned by the title holder to ensure these properties aren't protected against water damage be it a broken water pipe or a leaky roof. The housing market isn't going to be in a slump forever and these homes will soon be occupied. The individuals who hire an home inspector who views mold as an inconvenience as opposed to a health hazard will give the new home owner a false sense of security and the home owner will suffer long term health effects due to the home inspectors ill conceived belief mold is everywhere therefore it can't be hazardous. Mold is a toxic it can cause health issues and if not addressed immediatly it can even cause death. Please take the time to educate yourself on the effects of mold exposure and Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Fabry Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 If anyone cares, I locked Tug's profile. I have little to no tolerance for ad hominem arguments presented with little to no basis in fact by an anonymous poster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Raymond Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 Thank you. Just for fun, I ran some of his blather through the Fog and got a low of 12.07 and a high of 18.64. Apparently the lack of punctuation skews the results a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 Yeah, good, thanks. Deleting the anonymous post would be fine with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hausdok Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 Read the other day somewhere how a school closed its doors, removed all products containing peanut products from its pantry, prohibited students and employees from having peanut-containing snacks on their persons and spent thousands scrubbing down every surface - all because there was one student allergic to peanuts who attends that school. That's insane. Why isn't the student on meds and carrying an eppy pen? Should I expect a grocery store to not sell strawberries or rhubarb or rhubarb pies because the combination of the two could kill me? Should I sue grocery stores where these products are sold if they don't take them off the shelves? I wonder if that kid has ever gone into a grocery store where peanuts are sitting there open in bins with a scoop and folks scoop their own; and, if so, has the kid ever suffered because of that? How is it that folks in undeveloped countries with their ignorance of mold and all of these allergies seem to be able to grow their populations five or six times faster than we can grow ours when we supposedly are the ones with all of the education and great living conditions? Why aren't people in the third world dying off faster than they are being born since they are more exposed to these things than we are? Why aren't the majority of leading doctors, surgeons, environmental hygiene professionals and armies of lawyers on the boob tube every day warning us that we're all about to be consumed by the mold demon? Answer: No such demon exists. As a society we've grown soft and neurotic. I just wish everyone in this country would stop listening to every bogeyman story and looking for some excuse to sue everyone else and just take responsibility for their own lives and their own environment and stop running around blathering like chicken little. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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