ComplaintsforPillar to Post

• Initial Complaint

  03/11/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  When you are purchasing a home, you need a trusted inspector to help you make an informed decision about one of the biggest investments that you are making. We called Pillar to Post as they had great reviews. I should have taken the time to read the not-so-great ones. It was like we purchased the home blind with no inspection. First the report was late. I had to follow up with them to provide the report. Throughout the entire home purchasing/selling process, deadlines must be met, so it is VERY important for all parties to have an open line of communication. That was the smallest issue we had with this company (their lag with providing a prompt report). They got the date wrong on the ** unit. They said they were sorry. However, the date was very clear on the **. Now just a couple of more items. They missed major water damage in the laundry room/basement. If you look up you can clearly see the water damage. They also missed broken doors and broken seals on windows. Windows that were so obvious you could not see through them. We had briefly looked at the house and had trusted the inspector to provide an accurate report. Those are just a couple items that they missed. They also missed the bathtub dripping and the sinks not draining. All of these items add up to thousands of dollars. If these items had been clearly presented in the report, we would not have purchased this house. We have reached out to the inspector he has only offered to refund the cost of a window. Ultimately, he filed a claim with his insurance company, who like him appears to be deceiving and only willing to pay the cost of the home inspection. That does not cover the financial burden he has given us by his sloppy work

  Business response

  03/16/2024

  
  ******, I'm sorry you're experiencing issues with your home. We escalated your
  concerns to be independently reviewed and addressed per the scope of the
  inspection. Thank you for sharing your concerns, and I wish you the best moving
  forward.
  *********************, Pillar to Post Home Inspectors

  Customer response

  03/18/2024

   
  Complaint: 21406588
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

  Customer response

  03/18/2024

  
  The inspector has noted this issue has been escalated. However, there is no clear definition of what escalated means as there have been no solutions presented to us. His insurance company has in essence found him liable and or negligent since they referred us back to the section titled 4. Unless prohibited by applicable law, Inspector and its employees are limited in liability to the fee paid for the inspection services and report. In short, they are claiming the inspector can get away with being negligent and his consequences are the fee of an inspection report?
  
  In addition to our out of pocket expenses we have incurred because of the inspector's negligence, we also had to obtain quotes so his insurance carrier could evaluate the claim. Knowing they would only try to reimburse us for the inspection report amount, they made us jump through a variety of hoops and costs.
  
  Lastly, the water damage and the foggy windows the inspector missed on his report are visual items that a reasonable person would expect for a professional inspector to observe and report. The multiple items the inspector did not reference in his report could have been items that we could have asked the sellers to fix before we decided to purchase our house. If the sellers disagreed with our request we would have continued looking for another house. In the end, we are requesting the inspector reimburse us for the expenses we have incurred due to his negligence. He broke his contract with us when he failed to report visual defects within the standards he is supposed to operate under:
  
  1.)    Did he cause us to lose money? Yes.
  2.)    Could we have pursued a different home purchase if we were provided with the correct information? Most likely.  
  3.)    Would a reasonable person agree that the inspector had a duty to provide us with beneficial information that would have helped us make a $450K purchase? Yes
  4.)    In addition to the inspector failing to perform the visual inspection per the Standards of Practice of the **************** of **** Inspectors he also failed to ethically perform his duties (the Pillar To Posts website notes: Pillar To Posts culture is that of honesty, transparency and good, thorough work.) in this particular case the inspector appears to have forgotten the honesty, transparency, and good thorough work portion of what his company advertises. 
  
  
  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩