No Good Deed for Home Inspectors Goes Unpunished

When it comes to unreasonable, hard-to-please consumers, in my opinion you really have to go some distance to top the average house buyer. Throw in unreasonable and vindictive and you have a good idea of the sort of nincompoops to whom I have lately had the pleasure of explaining the facts of life: to wit, that their intemperate, unwarranted and extraordinarily foolish decision to post defamatory rants against their inspector on social media sites would very likely permanently impoverish them, if not immediately removed.

In every case where I have had to intervene, there existed no grounds whatsoever for impugning the inspector’s work product. Of course, as I have conclusively demonstrated, that is almost always the case.

For that reason, a lot of inspectors believe that they can persuade the slanderer to remove the offending post by sheer logic. And you would think that that would work. After all, if the issue was something that was outside the scope of the inspection, or concealed, or disclaimed, or found and reported, or clearly working when the inspection was performed – that is, something for which the inspector would be blameless – then surely any fair-minded person would apologize for their actions and promptly remove their offensive post.

You would think that. But, if my experience is any guide, you would be dead wrong.

A number of inspectors have even successfully persuaded the social media site to remove the offending post, only to have the cretin re-post.

Another inspector of my acquaintance offered to pay for the complainant’s entire repair – even though he had actually pointed out the issue in his report. And, initially, the slanderers were mollified. So much so that they would only accept a partial payment of the bill.

However, the inspector infuriated the claimant by having the temerity to request a General Release for his troubles, a completely reasonable request that prompted her to double down on the calumny with another ridiculous post.

So SuperMick is going to have to delineate for her in exquisite detail exactly why removing her slanderous posts immediately and forever after holding her peace would be the single most efficacious action that she could possibly undertake for the sake of her continuing financial health.