Home Inspection Negligence

[Stephen Loguidice]

Hi,

Looking to see if anyone has had experience with this.

I recently purchased a 2 family home back in Sept in Long Island NY.  Now that the cold weather has hit I've come to find out the heating system was done as a hack job that needs to completely get redone - and ASAP.  I've had 3 different plumbers look at it and all are saying this should have never passed inspection in the first place.

To try to brief, the house had a brand new HVAC system with the tankless wall units - this was actually one of the major reason I wanted the house as I currently look for my turnkey properties.  We'll whoever installed it used a hot water heater instead of a boiler for the heat, most likely to save money on the unit.

Quotes I'm getting are between $7,500 - $10k to replace the whole system with a combi unit and done correctly - which is a massive nut for something I thought I had a solid 10-15 years before having to replace.  So my question is can I go after the home inspection company for at least a portion of the cost since this should have been caught during their work? -  And also since I would have 100% either asked for a price reduction or a credit on the purchase if had been caught.

I never signed any contract with the company and I've looked over the report and there is no language around limitation of liability.  Looking for some advice on if a) I have a shot at getting some money from this company and b) is it even worth my time pursuing or is this something that I'm just going to have to suck up.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

-S

[Christopher Phillips]

@Stephen Loguidice

There's no real recourse after you purchase a home. The only thing you would get would get after a lot of back and forth would possibly be a credit back on the fee you paid for the home inspection. Whenever you buy a home it's buyer beware and "As-Is" once you take possession.

Poor workmanship is something to be discovered during the due diligence. However, most inspector contracts limit their liability to at most a credit on their fee. You would have to prove outright fraud with the inspector, or collusion between the inspector and the seller, to have a case.

There's also the possibility that the quotes are being alarmist to get your business. You should have a conversation with the inspector about the water heater and see if he agrees or not.

There are water heaters now that can be used for heat and hot water at the same time. Radiantec makes such a unit.