About fifteen months ago, one of my ClaimIntercept™ subscribers had gotten a demand letter from someone for whom he had performed a home inspection. The claim was prototypical of a home inspection claim in that it had no merit as to the home inspector and very likely [...]]]> “What goes around, comes around” is a popular expression where I come from. It is a celebration of comeuppance, the schadenfreude one feels when, every so often, some bad deeds do not go unpunished.

About fifteen months ago, one of my ClaimIntercept™ subscribers had gotten a demand letter from someone for whom he had performed a home inspection. The claim was prototypical of a home inspection claim in that it had no merit as to the home inspector and very likely none to either of the other targets, the seller of the home and the listing agent.

I wrote a letter that really knocked the claimant, who was an attorney with a very large firm, off of his pins. He forwarded the letter to counsel for the other two presumptive culprits and I subsequently received a call from the attorney for the seller who told me that, while he thought the letter was a work of art, it had “really set [the claimant] off.”

“Good”, I replied, “my fastball must not have lost any of its velocity.”

The purpose of the phone call was to ascertain my client’s interest in contributing to a settlement and I advised the attorney that I would pass the request along to my client but that I could not recommend any participation on my client’s part beyond nuisance value.

There ensued a few more conference calls with the claimant and his wife and attorneys for the other two parties, during which I stuck to my guns and the other participants, to my considerable delight, put up a yeoman-like effort of not caving. Eventually, the attorney-claimant saw the futility of having me pouring ice water all over his bogus claims at any future trial of the matter and the parties eventually managed to fashion a settlement to which my client made a relatively modest contribution.

That was then.

The other day my client called me and said “Do you remember [the above described case]?”

I sure did.

“Well, guess what? The house is back on the market. And … the buyer’s agent then is now the listing agent and the listing agent is now the buyer’s agent. And I was asked to inspect it.”

“And”, he continued, “he didn’t fix any of the things that he was complaining about!”

How … sweet it [sometimes] is!

The Law and Disorder Seminar is now Available Online!

In my travels across the country, many home inspectors have asked if I ever considered taping my Law and Disorder Seminar and packaging it for resale. Well, that time has come (and you can get a taste of what’s to come in the video above!).

I will continue to speak to chapter associations across the country, but if you can’t make one of those live speaking events, Joe Ferry TV: The Law and Disorder Seminar is [...]]]>

In my travels across the country, many home inspectors have asked if I ever considered taping my Law and Disorder Seminar and packaging it for resale. Well, that time has come (and you can get a taste of what’s to come in the video above!).

Here’s how it works: Purchase the Law and Disorder Seminar for an introductory price of $79.95 through April 1.

You will be directed to our PayPal portal to complete payment, and you will then receive an email from us with the web address and your specialized password to enter the site. Once there, you will find all 35 videos, a comments section that can serve as a way to discuss your business with other inspectors, and buttons with the various ways of interacting with me through LinkedIn, Twitter, a online contact form or through this website, www.joeferry.com.

On the 1st of each month (no matter when you purchase the online seminar), you will receive a NEW passcode as a form of protection against spammers and those who unlawfully attempt to access content behind the pay wall. Remember, these videos are under my ownership, attribution and copyright — so any access to these videos by non-paying members is strictly prohibited.

I hope you enjoy the seminar. Feel free to contact me with any questions or inquiries and don’t forget about my proprietary method of squashing meritless home inspection claims, ClaimIntercept.

That was then. I was relatively unknown.

Now, of course, this site has been extant for nearly two years and is nearing 35,000 unique visitors and 70,000 page views. And I have since terminated with prejudice over 500 home inspection claims through my proprietary [...]]]> Back in the early days of this enterprise, I had scheduled a number of seminars in the Washington, D. C. metropolitan area but could never attract enough interest from local home inspectors to make it worth my while.

That was then. I was relatively unknown.

Now, of course, this site has been extant for nearly two years and is nearing 35,000 unique visitors and 70,000 page views. And I have since terminated with prejudice over 500 home inspection claims through my proprietary early claim intervention strategies and techniques.

So, word seems to have gotten around. And, so I have not had to schedule a single seminar on my own for the last four years because home inspector organizations all over the country have been extending me invitations to come and speak to their members at their annual or semi-annual education conferences.

As one of my friends is fond of remarking on such developments, it’s a beautiful thing.

Thus, it is that I will be speaking to the NOVA ASHI Spring 2013 Seminar which is being held in Fairfax, Virginia on March 8 and 9, 2013 at the Best Western Fairfax Hotel located at 3535 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax, Virginia 22030. For information, Inspectors should contact Dave Rushton @ 540-636-6200 or via email. You can also visit the NOVA ASHI website.

I will be speaking from 8:00 a. m. until noon on Friday, March 8, 2013. In addition to all of the critical information about reducing your risk profile that you will receive, you could also win a one-year subscription to ClaimIntercept™. Whenever I am invited to speak by a local association of home inspectors, I always donate a one-year subscription to ClaimIntercept™ to the association that it can either give away as a door prize or raffle off to raise money for their endeavors.

So come on out. You might as well be the one.

The Law and Disorder Seminar is now Available Online!

Ever since I became the Irish Patient, I’ve become much more conscious that life has limits. On length. It’s a depressing thought and one you need to let go of for your own sake, [...]]]> There’s nothing like a birthday to drive home the point that life has stages: the Immortal Stage that lasts until about age 55 and the Mortal Stage where I am now gaining seniority at a breathtaking pace. Today, I am turning 66. A pair of sixes. Boxcars.

Ever since I became the Irish Patient, I’ve become much more conscious that life has limits. On length. It’s a depressing thought and one you need to let go of for your own sake, as well as the sake of others within your gravitational pull.

Fortunately, there are other spheres where life holds considerably fewer fixed limitations: happiness, job satisfaction, friendships, personal achievement, learning and the like.

Most of my lawyer friends seem to derive a lot of personal satisfaction from their professional endeavors, a statistical anomaly that appears at odds with reported job satisfaction surveys that one reads in legal journals. I would certainly count myself as “very satisfied professionally”.

And why wouldn’t I? I get invited to home inspection industry confabs all over the country and meet hundreds of full-time professional home inspectors, many of whom have become good friends who magnanimously share their gratitude for what I “do for the industry” and enthusiastically recommend me to their colleagues. The psychic income of this job is nigh incalculable.

It’s a wonderful life. And I am looking forward to spending the next year exactly as I spent the past one. Traveling around to industry conferences, speaking to gatherings of home inspectors and continuing the mission of squashing the torrent of unmeritorious claims that plague this otherwise wonderful industry and convincing disappointed home inspection clients to remove their spectacularly foolish and unwarranted slanders from social networking sites under pain of financial ruination.

The Law and Disorder Seminar is now Available Online!

At the moment, we are half-way through what local meteorologists are calling “the best week of the year” weather-wise at the New Jersey shore. I cannot disagree. The temperature has been a very-tolerable-for-Irishmen eighty-ish [...]]]> Since our kids have grown into responsible adults and are no longer needing or wanting to be around us for longer than necessary, Lady Agag and I have been spending more of our time at the seaside, especially in the so-called shoulder seasons of May-June and September-October.

At the moment, we are half-way through what local meteorologists are calling “the best week of the year” weather-wise at the New Jersey shore. I cannot disagree. The temperature has been a very-tolerable-for-Irishmen eighty-ish and the humidity has been blessedly low every day so far and it is forecast to continue so. It’s a bit like Groundhog Day.

Of course, notwithstanding that I’m on vacation, I continue to get calls and email from home inspectors who are being tortured by their delusional and implacable clients. If it’s not some nitwit posting false and reputation damaging comments on yelp or Angie’s List about an inspector, it’s another nitwit wondering why the inspector did not test every electric outlet and switch in their 4,000 square foot home, discover mold behind the drywall or determine that the septic system was inadequately-sized. It’s a bit like Groundhog Day.

Fortunately, thanks to modern technology – laptops, cell phones, 4G LTE MyFi connections, the effulgent and cost-effective online legal database fastcase.com and its super user-friendly search interface, which allows me to do legal research remotely with a minimum of keystrokes – and a terrific office support staff, I can respond effectively and rapidly to these insults no matter where I happen to be. To borrow a favorite phrase from one of my friends, It’s a beautiful thing.

And now, after having squashed close to 400 claims aborning, I would be thoroughly astonished if any of the next 400 claims that I see would differ in any meaningful way from the first 400.

In fact, I’m becoming a bit jaded by it all. Today, an inspector whose client-pest I am about to squash asked me “What happens next?” It’s a fair and frequently asked question to which I always give the same response. One that has proven to be 97 % accurate:

“I’ll draft a letter and email it to you to see if I have the facts straight. Then, mutatis mutandis, I’ll send the letter.”

“And you will never hear from this person again.”

“That sounds like a plan”, he replied.

The Law and Disorder Seminar is now Available Online!

Subrogation is a legal concept whereby one party – the subrogee – succeeds to the rights of another – the subrogor – either by operation of law or by contract. The most familiar examples of this concept involve [...]]]> To the ever expanding list of rent seekers that Home Inspectors have to fend off, please add insurance companies that have paid a first-party claim on behalf of a homeowner and then want to recover that payment from the home inspector through subrogation.

Subrogation is a legal concept whereby one party – the subrogee – succeeds to the rights of another – the subrogor – either by operation of law or by contract. The most familiar examples of this concept involve insurance companies that pay losses sustained by policyholders and then seek to recover those payments from tortfeasors that may be legally liable for the policyholder’s loss. The insurance company by virtue of its payment would succeed to the policyholder’s rights against the tortfeasor.

Thus, if an insurance company paid a collision loss on behalf of its policyholder who was not at fault in the accident, it can seek to recover that payment through subrogation from the driver who had actually caused the accident. Health insurance companies and workers compensation insurance companies who pay medical bills on behalf of their insureds will endeavor to recover those outlays from parties who may be legally responsible for causing their insureds’s injuries.

In the home inspection context, this would most often involve a claim by the seller of a home that was being inspected for damage caused by the inspector during the inspection. For example, if an inspector mistakenly turned off the heat in the house that he was inspecting and water pipes subsequently froze and burst as a result, the seller’s homeowners insurance would pay that claim on behalf of its insured and then seek to recover its payment from the home inspector.

That’s an example of a general liability subrogation claim.

Lately, however, I have been seeing claims that implicate the inspector’s professional liability. In those claims, the insurance company paid a claim on behalf of the client who had hired the inspector to evaluate a house he was considering buying and then took the position that the inspector’s negligent inspection caused the damage to the property that the insurer had to pay to rectify.

Thus, even though the inspector’s client may not be blaming the inspector, the client’s insurer is. Of course, these subrogation claims are no more meritorious than the prototypical home inspection professional liability claim and can be squashed in the very same way: by pointing out that the alleged defect could not have been discovered due to concealment or inaccessibility; that it was discovered and reported; that it was actually working at the time of the inspection; or that it is not something that is part of a home inspection.

The Law and Disorder Seminar is now Available Online!

Lately, I have come to the realization that I have pretty solid job security myself. Here’s a small sampling of the vermin that I have recently had to exterminate with extreme prejudice.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my ClaimIntercept™ subscribers consulted [...]]]> If you want job security, it would be hard to beat being an exterminator in New York City. Got roaches? Call the exterminator. Your problem is solved but now your next door neighbor has it. And the cycle continues.

Lately, I have come to the realization that I have pretty solid job security myself. Here’s a small sampling of the vermin that I have recently had to exterminate with extreme prejudice.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my ClaimIntercept™ subscribers consulted me about a claim that one of his clients was bringing after having discovered a bat infestation in his attic, some ten months after the inspection. And of course, the client is shocked, shocked that the home inspector did not manage to notice this when he inspected the attic.

Needless to say, the only batts in the attic at the time of the inspection were fibreglas insulation batts, as the photos taken at the time conclusively demonstrate. Not only are there no bats visible in the attic where the nocturnal creatures would be roosting during the daylight inspection, the fibreglas insulation batts were completely guano-free. Thus, it was a mortal certainty that the infestation developed some time subsequent to the inspection.

Is there any chance that the homeowner didn’t already know that? Of course not, but that didn’t stop him from making the claim.

Another inspector did an inspection for a client and, among other issues, pointed out the leaking shower to the client both orally and in the inspection report. The client dismissed the concern because “I’m going to remodel the bathroom.” Eight months later, workers removed the tub as part of the renovation project and found leaks under the tub. Now the client wants the inspector to pay for the bathroom renovation.

After patiently and politely explaining to this out-of-control client why he was not responsible and why he would not be refunding the inspection fee, the client became increasingly hostile. Relief was just a phone call away.

In another case, the inspection report had pointed out a number of issues which the client was able to use to persuade the seller to effect needed repairs or to reduce the selling price. Additionally, the seller had procured a one-year warranty. As the warranty expiration date neared, the client, who had been experiencing some heating and cooling issues, called for service. The servicemen found issues inside the ductwork and that the installation was not up to code. Now this ungrateful twerp wants the inspector to pay for the upgrade. Sorry, Charlie, not on my watch.

The Law and Disorder Seminar is now Available Online!

How many kids grow up with six older brothers to guide them along life’s journey and to straighten out wannabe tough guys? Have loving parents possessed of moral compasses that unerringly pointed True North and core beliefs in an immigrant ethos that valued hard work and resolute tenacity?

In adolescence, when we were not playing ball, my friends and I [...]]]> The vast majority of my friends firmly believe that I am “lucky”. Not just lucky, but unusually so. I believe it, myself.

How many kids grow up with six older brothers to guide them along life’s journey and to straighten out wannabe tough guys? Have loving parents possessed of moral compasses that unerringly pointed True North and core beliefs in an immigrant ethos that valued hard work and resolute tenacity?

In adolescence, when we were not playing ball, my friends and I passed the time playing cards – pinochle, hearts, poker. To my friends, it seemed as though I was always shooting the moon – taking every point – which is locally known as “pulling a schnitzer”, or filling inside straights. It seemed that way to me, too.

Then I got drafted into the Army during war time, went to OCS and got commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Field Artillery. Half of my class went to Vietnam, the other half went to Korea. I went to Korea. We had a month’s leave before reporting for duty but I decided to report early and ended up with a relatively cushy assignment as Executive Officer of a Headquarters Company in a Support Command. There wasn’t an artillery piece within ten thousand meters. My CO and I were the only two combat arms officers in the entire command.

Was that lucky? My OCS Classmate, Lt. Jim Wolf from Chicago thought so. When he arrived in Korea, two weeks after me and saw where I had landed, he marveled admiringly “Ferry, I just knew you’d end up in a place like this!”

Plus, I’ve never been sick. Ever. I had a pretty easy paper route.

So you can imagine my surprise to learn a few months ago that I had Stage Two Prostate Cancer. Me. The only one out of seven brothers.

So now it can be told. That’s why you haven’t seen much new content on the site these past several weeks. When I haven’t been consuming vast expanses of time having my constituent parts photographed or prepping for those sessions, I’ve been utilizing my spare time to hold the practice together, leaving very little time to post new content.

Fortunately, I am making a rapid recovery from having my “sowing machine” removed just nine days ago. Thanks to advanced surgical techniques involving robotic technology that minimizes the invasiveness of the procedure, I was home the next day. And thanks to the wonderful care that Lady Agag is providing, the Irish Patient is recovering apace and looking forward to upcoming speaking engagements in Morgantown, WV, Orlando, FL and Cromwell, CT.

Come out and see me.

The Law and Disorder Seminar is now Available Online!