Adventures in Home Buying

Do not abdicate the reading of your home inspection report

• Jim Troth

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Our company recently helped an older woman who bought a house in Ohio to be near her daughter undergoing chemotherapy but discovered mold issues that were clearly noted in the inspection report she never read. The situation highlights the dangers of relying solely on real estate agents to interpret inspection findings, especially when health concerns like compromised immune systems are involved.

• Buyer abdicated responsibility by not reading her own inspection report
• All her complaints were actually documented in the original report
• Improper mold remediation (scrubbing and painting over) made the situation worse
• Proper remediation is crucial when immunocompromised people are involved
• No "pass/fail" in home inspections - buyers must decide what issues matter to them
• Always read your own inspection report regardless of what agents tell you
• Multiple services available beyond basic inspection (radon, water, mold testing)


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Speaker 1:

all right, laura, we have a story, yes, we have stories of a lovely lady, yes, who bought a house, did the right thing by having a home inspection company take a look at it, but then, fortunately, it was our company which is good did it was am I right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we did this one. Yeah, we did the inspection for her and. We called out a lot of things in it in regards to potential organic growth.

Speaker 1:

Yes, because we saw some stuff we can't. Technically, you really can't call it mold unless you positively do a test to it. You know, though, if it's fuzzy, it looks like it it's in a moldy area.

Speaker 2:

there's a good chance that it is, but you should still get it tested. It looks like a duck and quacks like a duck. It's probably a duck, but you should test it to make sure that it is a duck or mold.

Speaker 1:

Here's the unfortunate thing for her. She called us, had some issues.

Speaker 2:

Concerns.

Speaker 1:

Concerns for her. She called us, had some issues, concerns, concerns. So she talked to uh, our company here, and everything she complained about or said she didn't know about was in the report yep everything come to find out. She never read her report and she instead looks like she relied on her real estate agent to tell her if there's anything important in there.

Speaker 2:

Sounds like it.

Speaker 1:

So she abdicated her her power to look at that and make decisions for herself. So what? So what's going on with that story now?

Speaker 2:

So the sad thing about it is it's an older woman, not from Ohio, she's from another state. Her daughter is going through chemo so they cannot have any mold in this house Like they just can't because their daughter can't take it All right.

Speaker 1:

How old is the daughter? Is it a kid or not? Ask, okay, I'm assuming it's an older, um adult because she's older okay, that, that's good that makes sense, yeah most people don't have kids when they're in their 60s right, and I think she's older than that, so I'm assuming it's an adult child. So this lady is out of state, moved up here where her daughter lives, I'm going to assume, I'm going to assume or at least where her daughter's doing chemo.

Speaker 2:

Yes, okay, so they bought a house to be up here and spend time and help take care of her.

Speaker 1:

Nice of them.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, very nice of them. So now you come to the point where apparently there was supposed to be some type of mold remediation and the remediation was just scrubbing it and kilsing.

Speaker 1:

All right, that remediation. Was that before we did the inspection, or is this like after we did the inspection?

Speaker 2:

I think it was after the inspection, but don't quote me on that okay I think that was maybe part of the report that the agent had requested.

Speaker 1:

Don't don't okay. So the agent didn't like totally neglect she.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well now here comes the interesting part they didn't get anything from a company saying that it had been remediated. Apparently, literally all they did was they scrubbed it and painted over it, which didn't actually make a difference and do anything, because it's not coming through the paint, so they didn't dry anything out. They didn't actually fix the issue, they didn't do any remediation or actually killed the mold to warranties.

Speaker 3:

For a great home inspection. You really can't go wrong. Visit homeinspectionsinohiocom.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so somebody did remediation, but we don't know if it was the seller, some homeless dude.

Speaker 2:

The agent pulled off the street to come do it because there's no receipt for any's my understanding company or any receipt at all so somehow company b gets involved with this and who's company b I don't know. Company b wanted to come in and dig out the mold okay, so that's another remediation company.

Speaker 2:

It's another remediation company. They wanted to dig out the mold and then that was pretty much. It just throw out the, the, the stuff that had the mold on it. No containment, no killing the mold prior, nothing like absolutely nothing. And he was pushing her hard to come in and do the remediation like he just wanted it done, he, like he actually wanted it done tonight I never heard of it. Back to their digging it out.

Speaker 1:

I mean I've heard of cutting out, removing a second, but just digging it sounds like you're just scraping it which you are a certified mold assessor through normie.

Speaker 2:

You you know that's not the proper way to do it no, yeah, and if you're gonna just go and you're gonna start digging at the mold without killing it, you're gonna release mycotoxins because the mold's gonna protect itself and you can't have that if somebody's going through chemo.

Speaker 1:

Because you go through chemo, your immune system is weakened your immune system shot like they. They kill your immune system on purpose same thing if you go through organ transplant yeah, you gotta take medication, transplant, chemo, which means you're gonna be more susceptible to issues with molds and mycotoxins and it sounds like man well, the molds came back right, so it wasn't the first time, so which means it wasn't killed.

Speaker 2:

They just scraped it off, which tells me there's probably gonna be mycotoxins there potentially yeah so now you, you talk to the lady, so you're, since you're a certified mold assessor, you're going to help her get things set up I've actually already contacted a remediation company that I work with and they, to my knowledge, were going out tonight to see her because she needs to get back to see her daughter. No-transcript, I got a good remediation company in there that I know will do a good job for them and at this point that's what they need.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so this is well for anybody who's in a position to recommend a home inspection company. You really need to trust your agent if you're going to abdicate your reading the report, because you and I, laura, we have several stories over the years where the person, the buyer, did not look the report.

Speaker 2:

let the agent tell them if there's anything important on there let the agent make up the request to remedy, if there even was one yeah, well, and we, and we've had people come back.

Speaker 1:

Hey, I didn't hey I'm having problems with this the one I'm thinking about right now is like, hey, their carbon monoxide was entering the house because the exhaust vent for the water heater was rusted out. I'm like, well, yeah, it's right here in the report.

Speaker 3:

Oh, I'm like, did you?

Speaker 1:

Well, she gave us a bad review and I'm like, did you even read the report? Because everything was right there that she had asked about. And I was like, if you yeah, if you relied on somebody else to tell you everything is good, you need to go after that person, for for not telling you being negative, for not telling you what's on there, and because, if you're the home buyer, this is, this is your house, this is you get to make the decision your financial responsibility.

Speaker 2:

You're the one that has to fix and repair any issues or have any remediation or anything along those lines. I mean she could have had a professional remediation company come in. We could have come in after that and double checked and done mold testing to make sure that it was all cleaned up. And she's lost that chance because I'm sure that first time they already screwed it up yeah, and it's probably all through the house at this point it potentially could be yep.

Speaker 1:

So this is one of the benefits of using a company like habitation investigation or any home inspection has been around for a long time but habitation investigator we got a lot of. We have a lot of training a lot of experience a lot of different areas. We just don't learn the whole inspection and that's. That's it we keep doing more and more things and keep learning things.

Speaker 3:

So if you have an issue we're.

Speaker 1:

We're a great resource yeah for agents, buyers and sellers to ask us. Now we're not going to really help the seller too much on some things, because we've had sellers lie and go. No, they said this doesn't need fixed. Bull shit. We did not say it doesn't need fixed. We say it's not a we're giving you suggestions. If I'm talking to the seller if I ever do, which almost always is going to be in writing email oh yeah, it will be like hey, this is where that area was and that's about it. I'm never going to tell them it's not a big deal, because that's that's not our choice. Who determines it's a big deal is the buyer.

Speaker 2:

They decide if it's a big deal well, and this little lady asked us how it even passed inspection. And I'm like there is no pass or fail. You look at the report and decide can you live with this or, in this case, can your daughter live with this?

Speaker 1:

And makes me wonder if the agent go. Yeah, it passed.

Speaker 2:

Right, because there is no pass fail with home inspections. So for somebody to sit here and ask that, that tells me that their agent did not give them enough information. And the sad thing is this woman was like oh, our agent was such a sweetheart, I absolutely love her, she was such a dear. Well, do you know how many times I've heard that? And and like, the next time I talked to them they're like oh yeah, I got stabbed in the back.

Speaker 1:

Once I really figured out what happened oh yeah, well, I used to work in mental health field oh okay, okay, and I one of the people I used to work with was this nurse who'd be interested in meeting again. I have to see her sometimes to see what kind of crazy stuff she's she's been involved yeah, she was. I mean she was nice, but uh, she used to work. She worked at a mental hospital where Billy Milligan was.

Speaker 1:

So for those that don't know who was Billy Milligan, he was a serial rapist here in Columbus, ohio who had multiple personalities. So there's like the Minds of Billy Milligan. I think that's a movie or a book.

Speaker 2:

Wasn't he the first person that they used the insanity defense on?

Speaker 1:

Oh, he may have been.

Speaker 2:

I think he was the first person.

Speaker 1:

That or multiple personality? I'm not certain.

Speaker 2:

That would still be insanity. I think that was how they called it. It was the first insanity plea.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he was, but she said he was a very charming man. But she said he was a very charming man. And, like I always said, when we interview people, anybody can. Or if you're single out there, if you're dating somebody, anybody can act sane and normal for a little while repeatedly, but when you see them over time, no.

Speaker 2:

Now you start seeing it, the planets start to break down.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they get relaxed. They think, oh, I made like, I got past this hurdle, and then they let their true color show. They can always act normal for so long, but I'm, I don't. I don't know this agent, but I'm. Hopefully she just made a mistake or there's miscommunication between her and the lady, I don't know. But if you're the home buyer, do not give up your right to decide what you get inspected and by that I'm talking about your radon, your water test, mold testing. You decide what you want looked at, not your agent.

Speaker 1:

Sewer scopes, chimney scopes. You decide that stuff, so you decide what you get looked at. But you also never give up your right to read the report for yourself, Because what you think is a big deal, your agent might be like nope, I don't think that's a big deal.

Speaker 2:

That should not kill the deal.

Speaker 1:

That should not kill the deal, so I'm not going to say anything. There's nothing major in here.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

Well, maybe major to you. There's nothing major in here, right?

Speaker 2:

no-transcript.

Speaker 1:

So all right.

Contributor

Jim Troth

Host
Contributor

Laura Troth

Host