Inspected home I had accepted offer subject to inspection. Purpose of inspection was for home purchase. I already had a contractor check home for free and no liablity. I certainly would not have paid $375 for report limiting his liability to amount of inspection.
.At inspection, July 1, 2015, Roger the owner of company limited his inspection to accessible areas. I agreed to that limitation only. Roger had me initial and sign the agreement. He promised to email when he returned home. I did not receive copy of agreement as promised or required by law. I did receive report it stipulated his liability was limited to the amount I paid for the inspection. I wrote an email stating the limitation to amount of inspection is not acceptable or was it agreed upon. Mr. Roger Aldridge waited another 3 weeks to cash check. Well he cashed check and refused to change report. He blamed it on his trade association and said cannot change report as Ashi (American Society of Home Inspectors) made report and he did not know how to change. Roger finally sent a copy of agreement. It had limitations of liability to accessible areas, 1 year on defects signed and initialed by me and not him. Page 1 which was unsigned by both of us, referred to regs and stated I will receive a copy by the second day, July 2, 2015. I did not receive the agreement until August 16, 2015. The first copy sent on August 16, 2015, was in a format my computer could not open. The second copy, also sent on August 16, 2015, was sent PDF with upside down pages. After sending agreement 1 1/2 months late, Roger never signed the agreement.
Service Provider Response
RCA Home Inspections uses the ‘Washington State/ASHIWW Standard Home Inspection Preinspection Agreement’ dated 9/10/11,v.1. The State of Washington and the American Society of Home Inspectors of Western Washington (ASHIWW) worked hand and hand in the development of said agreement form. This agreement form is used by the majority of inspectors in our area. In addition, if I don’t have a signed preinspection agreement before doing the inspection my Errors and Omissions insurance would be null and void. If a client chooses to not initial and sign the agreement I will not do the inspection. On the day of the inspection I explained exactly what all the limitations meant to our client, including the first one which states in capitals and underlined LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT OF THE FEE PAID BY THE CLIENT FOR THE INSPECTION. The client initialed all appropriate spaces and signed the agreement. My name is printed, dated along with my license number on all agreement forms I use. This is how I was instructed to use the form by the state and has always been viewed as a signed agreement on my part. On front page of the agreement it is stated ‘Client will be provided a copy of the home inspection report no later than 7/2/15’. She received the report on the evening of 7/1/15. There is no mention of providing a copy of the Preinspection Agreement. When she requested a copy of the Preinspection agreement on 8/16/15 it was immediately provided. I would like to also point out that this is an agreement, not a law. We do not make daily bank deposits. We try to make a deposit every 2 weeks. The client's check was 1 of 18 checks we deposited on 7/17/15. On 7/25 and 7/28 I received threatening emails from the client. Since she recently relocated from California I decided it would be best if the State of Washington explained the agreement and the Washington State Standards of Practice to her. I provided her with the name of the Program Manager over the Home Inspector Program in the Washington State Department of Licensing along with their phone number. Based on her comments in Angie’s List I am left to assume she did not make the call. FYI Standards of Practice are readily available @ www.dol.wa.gov/business/homeinspectors/hilawsrules.html - 18kg If you are still reading our reply THANK YOU!! I am a professional who takes pride and care in my work which is reflected in the majority of my Angie’s List reviews. Hopefully our client's unfounded review will not keep you from using RCA Home Inspections. Respectively yours, Rodger C. Althage
