Before legislation like this is to be passed, we need to take a big picture view of what the end result will be. Right now a home inspection should be conducted for the purpose of protecting the buyer, or client from hidden cost of repairs that may be needed, to make, or keep the home livable and safe. This legislation will not only result in the drastic increase in home inspection prices, but will also result in home inspectors protecting themselves instead of the client by providing a report that limits the inspectors liability, with very little useful information in it.

This is a word-or-mouth business and if an inspector displays a pattern that is detrimental to the industry, it shouldn’t take long before he has very little, if any work. I do very little marketing and it didn’t take long when I started years ago to have a full schedule and turning away work. Good inspectors should rise to the top and the rest should be left in the dust. This is how free enterprise works. We don’t need government to protect us.

Attorneys do nothing more than capitalize and perpetuate problems for their own benefit.

It’s also important to understand that a home inspection is:

A high liability, in depth Mutidisciplined technical analysis of a home, Conducted under adverse conditions, In front of a demanding audience, Requiring the generation of an incredibly detailed report, Prepared in an un-realistically short time frame, For an inconceivably low fee.

This legislation will not only hurt the entire home inspection process in Virginia, but will also hurt the buyers, clients and realtors in the process. If the intent is truly to protect the home buyers, than this legislation will not do that. Or is the intent to provide additional feeding for overzealous attorneys at the expense of the buyers? . . time will tell.