subject: Why Errors And Omissions Insurance Is So Important To Professional Home Inspectors [print this page] E and O insurance, as it is commonly referred to, protects home inspectors from a lawsuit should they, with no malicious intent, fail to spot something that needed to be repaired or replaced in a home. Although inspectors are usually well trained to be aware of the hundreds of objects in a given home that can be broken, there are times they can make errors.
Inspectors may not do as thorough of an evaluation of a homes heating system as they ideally should, for example. After the inspector signs off on the inspection and the home is sold, trouble is likely to happen when the new owner realizes hes going to have to spend $10,000 to fix a heating system that completely stopped working six months after he moved in. Errors and Omissions insurance will protect the inspector in a case like this.
Without E and O insurance, a professional home inspector could be seriously damaged by a lawsuit, because in examples like the above, that homeowner is going to want his heating system fixed, and who do you think hes going to look at for the money? Not the previous owner, but the home inspector.
Another, even more important, reason for home inspectors to have errors and omissions insurance in place is in the event that someone in a home is injured or killed because of a mistake the inspector made. In this case, the court could rule that the inspector is personally liable, and this could financially destroy him or her.
A lot of people not just home inspectors should have E and O insurance. These include electricians, plumbers, carpenters, insurance agents themselves, appraisers, management consultants, IT consultants, software developers, architects, landscape designers and many more. Unfortunately, some of these people dont think about it until its too late.
E and O insurance has saved countless professionals from being ruined by an expensive lawsuit. It has allowed these individuals (and often the companies they work for) to continue operating and improving on their expertise to keep mistakes at a minimum in the future.
In summary, home inspectors need E and O insurance coverage to protect them in the event they overlook some element of their home inspection. The new homeowner moves in assuming every part of the inspection was done properly and may decide to take to court an inspector who missed something that is going to end up costing the homeowner money to fix or replace.
by: Brenda Welsh
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