COMMENTARY FROM LARRY AMES NYS ASSOCIATION OF HOME INSPECTORS

Too many buyers feel pressure to waive the inspection. It puts them at huge financial risk and tilts the real estate market toward corporate buyers and the wealthy. 

The housing market, with low inventory and high demand, has created a bargaining chip of the inspection waiver. Buyers feel pressured to waive the home inspection to compete. They bid blind on "as-is" listings without opportunity to fairly evaluate their purchase and with often - large earnest deposit forfeit if they back out. 

Desperate buyers can be pushed into a dangerous game of chance, often finding they have no choice but to waive the home inspection. Some sales require a waiver for an offer to even be considered.

But buying a home without an inspection leaves families exposed to potentially catastrophic financial and health risks. Buyers could unknowingly purchase a "money pit" or "sick home", saddling them with unexpected costly repairs or health-threatening conditions. Bills before the Legislature (S8729/A9629) would protect buyers' right to a home inspection. It's an essential, common-sense measure to restore fairness to home sales and ensure that professional support in due diligence is not a luxury, but a right. Similar to general practitioner doctors - professionals prepared to evaluate complex body systems, inspectors examine homes as a whole, explain conditions to their client, and call for tests or specialists if needed. A license is required for home inspectors, with mandatory training, standards of practice and ethics, insurance requirements and continuing education. The written report, which reveals defects and hazards not commonly visible to the untrained, must be objective and unbiased.

The "protection" offered by the Property Condition Disclosure Law is inadequate: Sellers are only required to respond "to the best of their knowledge" and can just check "unknown" on the form. Some even lie. Lawsuits and formal complaints by emotionally, physically and financially exhausted new homeowners are rare. 

The entry of savvy "corporate" buyers into the residential market is generating a class system where the wealthy can absorb waiver surprises, while average/lower-income buyers, desperate for a home, may conclude that they must waive inspection to compete, becoming exposed to life-altering risks with no safety net.

Under 'Right to Home Inspection Legislation', home inspection would not be mandated. Instead, homebuyers would have the right to an inspection and the time to get that done. They could withdraw with deposit refund if the property is found to be unacceptable. Offers or purchase agreements waiving the inspection right would be prohibited, with substantial penalties for violations.

The bill would also reduce liability for sellers and agents, who can be exposed to "sleeper claims" from undisclosed problems discovered after closing. Home inspection strengthens the portfolios of mortgage and insurance companies by helping to find and deal with problems early. It would also support public welfare and the tax base by reducing foreclosures, ruined credit, homelessness and abandoned homes.

The truly affordable home is not so much the one you can afford to buy, but rather the one you can afford to keep. Consumers need to be protected in what's often the largest purchase of a lifetime. Guaranteeing homebuyer access to inspection can level the playing field, protect vulnerable citizens and do much to see that the American Dream of homeownership doesn't become a nightmare. We need it now, to restore what had been the common and accepted practice of inspection in buying a home, and to bring fairness back to the marketplace.

Larry Ames is the secretary of the New York State Association of Home Inspectors.