Inspection Question.

This was emailed to me last night. I thought many of our readers would be interested in this email:


Dear Scott,
We sold our home 13 months ago. We were contacted by the Buyers Agent this week that we now have disclosure problems.The issue involves the swimming pool in which the buyer now claims it`s got a "BAD" leak.The buyers' home inspector failed to notice the leak when they originally did the inspection.The buyer is reselling the property and the new inspection just revealed the pool leak. As a result, the people who purchased the property from us are demanding payment for repairs. We believe their home inspector should have discovered the problem ,just as the recent home inspector did. Don't you think their inspector should have told them if they were really concerned about the pool it would be better to hire a pool company to complete that part of the inspection? We feel that we shouldn`t be involved in this problem due to the length of time that has elapsed. What is your opinion? – Joan W.
Dear Joan,
A home inspector's responsibility is to discover all pertinent conditions that are visibly discernible. If the recent home inspection revealed the pool leak now, it`s very possible that when you owned the home there wasn`t a leak at the time. After all 13 months have passed and problems with a home arise everyday! However, this does not absolve you, the seller, from your legal obligation to provide full disclosure to buyers.
Your duty to the buyers was to disclose whatever conditions you were aware of at the time of the transaction. You may not have known about damages to the pool.I`m sure you could tell if your pool actually did leak.Of course, you could only be expected to mention this to the inspector if you knew he had overlooked it. You may have been totally unaware of his omission, in which case you would bear no responsibility for the lack of disclosure. However, if you were aware of his error, then the matter should have been brought to his attention.
It is not the job of home inspectors, as some mistakenly believe, to compensate for disclosures deliberately withheld by sellers or to indemnify sellers for the financial consequences of their willful silence. To envision home inspectors, as some apparently do, as undeclared underwriters, providing disclosure insurance, as it were, for misguided sellers, is a far-reaching infringement, breaching the legal boundaries that define the requirements for seller disclosure.
An honest and forthcoming posture for sellers includes a willingness to inform home inspectors of conditions that might concern a buyer or that might aid the inspector in the performance of his discovery. From that perspective, only you can say whether the current complaint arises from an unintended error or a deliberate withholding of information.
At this stage, it would be advisable for you to contact your attorney to further discuss this issue.