Relative doing house inspection?

**tristar76** · 09-02-2009, 01:43 PM

We have a signed offer for our house. It's time for home inspections, and their agent told ours that they will do a termite, but skipping the whole-house. Instead, they will have a relative who's a contractor come take a look. My agent politely told them that since he's not licensed to do home inspections, none of his findings would be legally binding. Is this common at all? I'm a little worried, to be honest. My agent tells us there's nothing to worry about, and that he doesn't want to upset them and disallow this for fear that they might walk away.

**Curtis McLain** · 09-02-2009, 03:05 PM

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Having a house inspection done is the obligation of the buyer. They can get the local bum to look at it if they want but it won

**dognponyshow** · 09-02-2009, 03:32 PM

I'm not sure what the agent has in mind that could be described by the phrase "legally binding" but, as Curtis McLain said, the buyers can do whatever they want as far as having someone look at the house. The downside of using someone who isn't a licensed inspector is that he has no livelihood at stake and no state agency looking over his shoulder. In a situation like that, it's not uncommon for the "inspector" to try to prove he's better by finding major problems that -- of course -- the seller must pay to have corrected before the sale closes. In fact, a more suspicious person than I might suspect a bit of teamwork is afoot to lower the price or make improvements on the seller's dime. But not I

.

After the inspection, you might find out just how good your agent's negotiating skills are. At the very least, you may wind up paying for a professional opinion to back up your position.

Good luck, I hope all goes smoothly.

**markbrian** · 09-02-2009, 05:54 PM

Without having the knowledge of how your particular contract mentions the inspection, I think this is hard to say one way or the other. The fact that the relative is not licensed as an inspector, but instead as a contractor (maybe?), this definitely makes for an interesting situation.

In general, your agent is the best person to advise you. But please keep us posted on how things turn out.

**Greg** · 09-03-2009, 05:43 AM

In NC it would not matter what this contractor says is wrong if he is not a licensed home inspector. If they make an issue of the inspection and threaten to walk if they don't get a price reduction they would lose their earnest money deposit simply because they did not use a licensed home inspector.

It may be different where you are.

**Curtis McLain** · 09-03-2009, 11:33 AM

Did some checking in Oklahoma its legal for the buyers to use any professional in the housing industry. But from a legal standpoint in any state i would have to think there would be a legal issue with using a relative.

**markbrian** · 09-03-2009, 12:01 PM

I think everybody, myself included is trying to look at this from the perspective of our local laws regarding inspections. It is hard to answer a question like this since we do not have the ability to read your particular contract and since we are not attorneys, we can't give legal advice anyway.

I would suggest talking with your agent and tell them how you are worried about this and can they explain this situation and the positives and negative consequences of this situation. After all, your agent can help you with the specifics better than we can, we can just tell you how things are done in our neck of the woods.