Seller Recourse for a Bad Home Inspection in Sacramento

A bad home inspection is rare in Sacramento but it does occur.

Imagine, if you will, a scenario in which a bad home inspection can blow a real estate transaction in Sacramento, further compounded by the fact that sellers have no voice in the matter about which company will inspect their home, and you’ve got fodder for potential lawsuits, if not at least more revisions to the California Residential Purchase Agreement. It’s a crazy situation that there seems to be no solution to. It’s been this way in Sacramento real estate for so long that nobody even questions the validity of such shenanigans.

First there is the issue that the listing side and the selling side, by the very nature of the situation, are opposing sides. Yeah, yeah, you’ve got your pundits who want to believe in the win-win concept, the rose-colored glass is always half-full, but usually one side wins a little bit more than the other. This is the main reason I don’t like to endorse dual representation, even though dual agency is legal.

Like an agent who will list her own investment property and then sell that investment property to a buyer she also represents. Talk about dual agency galore party. You’ve gotta wonder about the representation in those types of matters, and why any risk-adverse real estate agent would undertake such a thing, but some agents do. That carries such risk on so many levels it can make your head spin. What kind of risk does a buyer take to believe a home inspector referred by the seller-slash-agent?

Recourses for a Bad Home Inspection

Moreover, what can a independently represented seller do if she receives a bad home inspection, riddled with errors and mistakes, ordered by the buyer’s agent? She can call a real estate lawyer if she suffers damages because of it. She can respond to the allegations and / or obtain independent reports. But the deal is a home buyer tends to believe the home inspector her agent recommends or the home inspector she independently chooses. Most buyers don’t know up from down when it comes to a home inspection. A seller can report the home inspector to a trade association, if the inspector belongs to such a trade association, but those groups are likely to say that home inspectors sometimes make mistakes. Sometimes they do.

There is no license for a home inspector in the state of California. No home inspector license. I’ve heard agents say they work with licensed home inspectors, and that is absolutely incorrect. Just about anybody can become a “home inspector” in Sacramento. There are no exams to pass, no licenses to obtain, no credentials required. That’s how we get bad home inspections. It’s the luck of the draw. The bell curve.

Oh, and in case you’re thinking that the seller could obtain her own home inspection in advance from a reputable and established home inspector, that is a bad idea. The reasons against this bad idea are three-fold. First, no two home inspections are identical, and the seller’s home inspection might find defects that the seller would feel compelled to repair when the eventual buyer might not care about those issues. Second, the buyer’s home inspection could note repair issues not found on the seller’s. Third, the buyer will still order her own inspection, regardless. Why cross the bridge twice?

Bottom line, all purchase contracts state the sale is AS IS, and a seller is not required to do any repairs. A home inspection is simply for the buyer’s edification. Whether it is a good home inspection or a bad home inspection, a buyer might never really know.