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59 Ala. L. Rev. 107 (2007-2008)
The Liability of Home Inspectors in Residential Real Estate Sales

handle is hein.journals/bamalr59 and id is 119 raw text is: THE LIABILITY OF HOME INSPECTORS IN RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE SALES Gene Marsh* I. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 107 II. THE HOME INSPECTION INDUSTRY ....................................................... 113 A. Training To Be A Home Inspector .................................................. 113 B. Shopping For A Home Inspector .................................................... 115 C. Trade A ssociations ......................................................................... 116 D. Scope and Costs of Home Inspection ............................................. 118 HI. CONSIDERATIONS IN HIRING AND TIMING OF THE INSPECTION .......... 118 IV . STATE REGULATION ............................................................................ 122 V. HOME INSPECTORS IN THE COURTS ...................................................... 125 A. Home Inspector Liability to Parties Not in Privity and Other Third Party Liability Issues ..................................................................... 126 B. Consumer Reliance on Inspections, Misunderstandings Regarding Scope, and Substandard Home Inspections ................................... 140 C. Attempts By Home Inspectors To Limit Liability and Impose Arbitration .................................................................. 151 D. Other Issues in Home Inspector Litigation ................................... 157 V I. C ONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 159 I. INTRODUCTION A review of advertisements for the sale of residential real estate leads one to wonder whether houses could be sold were adjectives to disappear. Evidently, few people in the real estate industry follow Mark Twain's ad- vice regarding the use of adjectives.' Although exaggeration and puffery are commonplace in many forms of advertising, the real estate industry proba- bly wins the prize for the use of flowery descriptors in the sale of homes, * James M Kidd, Sr., Professor of Law, The University of Alabama. B.S., M.S., Ohio State Uni- versity; J.D., Washington and Lee University. I am grateful to the Law School Foundation and the James M. Kidd, Sr., Professorship for research support. I also appreciate the assistance of Joshua White, Ala- bama School of Law, Class of 2003, as well as the assistance of Brian Kane and Bethany Sulc, Alabama School of Law, Class of 2005, and Rich Pohlsander, Class of 2007. 1. Mark Twain advised, [a]s to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out. THE WIT AND WISDOM OF MARK TWAIN 2 (Alex Ayres ed., 1989).