{"id":66058,"date":"2020-01-06T19:42:59","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T19:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=66058"},"modified":"2020-01-06T19:42:59","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T19:42:59","slug":"property-inspections-who-has-to-be-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=66058","title":{"rendered":"Property Inspections: Who Has to Be There?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"field field--name-field-summary field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field--item\">There are fewer rules about who should or should not attend a property inspection than many Realtors think. To determine who needs to be present, look at a combination of factors, including the parties\u2019 wishes and the buyers\u2019 and sellers\u2019 rights under the contract.<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field--item\">\n<p>ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 There\u2019s a fair amount of confusion over who has to be present at a property when an inspector is conducting an inspection for a buyer under contract with a seller. Some of the statements I\u2019ve heard on the Legal Hotline are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe buyer\u2019s agent\u00a0<em>has<\/em>\u00a0to be there. It\u2019s required by law!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe seller isn\u2019t allowed to be there. He\/she must leave.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe listing agent doesn\u2019t have to be there \u2013 It isn\u2019t the seller\u2019s inspection, it\u2019s the buyer\u2019s!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cA buyer can\u2019t inspect the property on his\/her own. Only a professional inspector can do an inspection.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To be clear: None of the above statements are, on their own, true or accurate.<\/p>\n<p>Determining who needs to be present during an inspection involves a combination of factors, including the parties\u2019 wishes and the parties\u2019 rights under the contract. Let\u2019s walk through the above statements and break down what isn\u2019t right about each one:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>The buyer\u2019s agent has to be there as it is required by law.<\/strong>\u00a0Nope. There is no Florida law that states a buyer\u2019s Realtor must be present during an inspection. So under what circumstances, might a buyer\u2019s Realtor be present? For starters, if the buyer \u2013 that Realtor\u2019s customer \u2013 would like their agent to be there. Sometimes buyers themselves aren\u2019t able to be present for the inspection \u2013 maybe due to work or being out of town. In those cases, buyers may request their agent to attend and report back on any findings before getting the official report from the inspector.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The seller must leave and cannot be present during the inspection.<\/strong>\u00a0There is no requirement under any of the Florida Realtors\u2019 contracts or the law that states sellers cannot be at their home when an inspection takes place. Many choose to leave; some decide to stay. The point: It\u2019s entirely up to the sellers whether they\u2019re home or not.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Since it\u2019s a buyers\u2019 inspection, the listing agent doesn\u2019t have to be there.<\/strong>\u00a0Well, and here is everyone\u2019s favorite answer, it depends. If the sellers want their agent to be present while an inspection is conducted, then the listing agent likely needs to be there. Sellers who aren\u2019t familiar with the buyers\u2019 agent or inspector could feel better knowing their agent was at the property.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The buyers can\u2019t do their own property inspection \u2013 only a professional inspector can inspect.<\/strong>\u00a0This isn\u2019t necessarily true. The answer primarily depends on the contract. For example, in reviewing the ASIS Florida Realtors\/Florida Bar Contract, which does not require any seller repairs, buyers have a certain amount of days after the effective date to have \u201csuch inspections of the property as buyer shall desire during the inspection period.\u201d If the buyer desires a professional inspection, that\u2019s fine. If the buyer only desires a quick run through the property on his or her own, that\u2019s fine too (although not recommended in most cases). However, with the Contract for Residential Sale and Purchase (CRSP) and the standard Florida Realtors\/Florida Bar contract, in which sellers\u00a0<em>are<\/em>\u00a0obligated to make repairs, most of the inspections contemplated by the contracts require a professional inspector or person specializing in the area and holding a license (if required by law) should buyers want contractually required repairs made.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The takeaway here: Blanket statements regarding who must do what and when usually don\u2019t fit each and every situation. In most cases, the language of the contract and buyers and sellers\u2019 wishes need to be taken into account before getting your \u201canswer\u201d \u2013 again, by having discussions with your customers about what they expect during a transaction will make you better prepared in the long run.<\/p>\n<p><em>by Meredith Caruso,\u00a0 Associate General Counsel for Florida Realtors<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are fewer rules about who should or should not attend a property inspection than many Realtors think. To determine who needs to be present, look at a combination of factors, including the parties\u2019 wishes and the buyers\u2019 and sellers\u2019 rights under the contract. ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 There\u2019s a fair amount of confusion over who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66059,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66058\/revisions\/66059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}