Why Homeowners Should Pick Home Inspectors With E & O Insurance ?

By Author: Brenda Welsh
Total Articles: 3
Comment this article

When prospective home buyers have decided to make an offer on a new home, one of the provisions they should make contingent before signing on the dotted line is the home inspection. The job of a home inspector is to examine various aspects of the home and make a note of any problems there are both for informational purposes and in order to make sure that the buyers aren’t paying an unfair price for the home.

Home buyers can take what they learn from the inspection and make an informed decision about whether it’s worth buying the house, or whether it’s only worth it for a lower price. Either way, they benefit from having a good, accurate inspection to serve as a guide for whether to proceed with purchasing a home. The only trouble is, what happens if the home inspector somehow offered missing or mistaken information? Sometimes, a home inspector makes an error or omits something important in an inspection. These mistakes are appropriately called errors and omissions (e & o), and either one could cost a home buyer tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result.

The reason ...
... errors and omissions are so expensive is because the inspector could misread or miss something that would have convinced the home buyers to pass on a home or renegotiate a lower price that takes those problems into account. The error and omission could be a missed fire hazard that burns the house down, or a significant asbestos problem that costs the new home owners thousands to fix. In these examples, if the home buyers had gotten the proper facts about the condition of the home, they would have acted differently, so they place the blame on the home inspector for errors and omissions.

Home owners are not in the wrong for seeking damages when they trusted an inspection and acted based on faulty knowledge. However, they have little recourse if the home inspector they hired doesn’t have e & o insurance. This insurance will help cover for the costs in a case where home owners sue a home inspector for errors and omissions. General liability insurance doesn’t cover errors and omissions on the job, so it’s absolutely essential for homeowners to pick a home inspector with e & o insurance.

Like doctors with malpractice insurance, home inspectors rely on e & o insurance to protect them from lawsuits claiming errors and omissions in an inspection. If home buyers encounter any home inspectors without this critical insurance, it’s best to keep looking. The same applies for situations where the home inspector tries to get home buyers to sign something that waives the inspector’s liability for errors and omissions. True professionals recognize that errors and omissions are a potential occurrence on the job and have the insurance to cover it.

That’s why it’s so important for home owners who need an inspection to choose inspectors with e & o insurance.

Brenda Welsh is a freelance writer interested in home inspection insurance. He recommends EiiPro, a quality e & o insurance provider that provides errors and omissions insurance to professional home inspectors. Learn more about home inspector insurance by visiting eiipro.com.