11 Things Home Inspectors Can’t Legally Disclose, According to Former Inspectors
1. Details From Your Inspection Report Without Your Permission
Home inspectors cannot share any information from your inspection with anyone except you, the client, without your written permission, except in cases affecting safety or legal violations. The inspection report belongs to the person who ordered it, typically the buyer, and unless you authorize its release, no one else, including the seller or real estate agents, has a legal right to view or share it. This strict confidentiality rule protects your negotiating power. If an inspector discovers a significant problem, you get to decide how and when to use that information during price discussions.
Confidentiality protects your interests during negotiations by allowing you to control how and when information is shared, giving you greater leverage if you discover significant issues that could help renegotiate the purchase price or request repairs. Think about it this way: finding out the roof needs replacing gives you ammunition, and keeping that report private until you’re ready means the seller can’t prepare their counterstrategy.
2. Whether You Should Actually Buy the House
Inspectors cannot tell you whether or not you should buy a home, with many still hearing questions like “Would you let your daughter buy this house?” which is an impossible question they’re both unable and not permitted to answer, as some houses with the biggest problems can turn out to be the best deal for someone. Let’s be real, this one frustrates buyers constantly. You want someone with expertise to just give you a straight answer, right?
Inspectors cannot comment on whether you should address an item that might be a problem, and most importantly, they need to be objective and cannot comment on whether you should purchase the home. Their job ends at identifying issues, not making life decisions for you. That’s actually a good thing, though it might not feel like it during a stressful home search.
3. The Property’s Market Value or Whether It’s Worth the Price
Home inspectors are forbidden from providing information about home value, as appraisers are skilled in looking at market conditions to establish a home’s value, which may include inspection results, but inspectors do not have this background. Commenting on a home’s value may frustrate agents who feel it impacts their ability to do their job, and it’s okay for inspectors to tell homeowners that if they knew much about evaluating home values, they’d be selling them instead of inspecting them.
The inspector’s silence about price doesn’t mean they secretly agree with the listing amount. It’s simply a professional boundary they have to maintain. Their expertise is in structure and systems, not market dynamics or comparable sales data.
4. Exact Cost Estimates for Repairs
Repair costs can vary significantly based on material quality and local labor rates, and an inspector who is not currently working as a plumber or electrician is not qualified to give an accurate quote, as providing a price tag is considered a risk that could cause disagreement during negotiations. Authorities recommend taking the inspector’s list of problems to a registered expert to acquire an accurate price, as the inspector tells you what’s wrong and the contractor gives you the bill.
If your inspector gives you a ballpark figure off the record, they’re going above and beyond their job description. Don’t hold them to it. That cracked foundation might cost anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands depending on who you hire and what materials they use.
5. How Long Before Systems or Appliances Need Replacement
When buyers ask about an old furnace’s remaining lifespan, inspectors rarely provide a timetable because they can’t see internal wear or external corrosion, making any estimate supposition that could lead to lawsuits if the system breaks sooner than predicted. It’s simply not possible to know when equipment will fail, and if something is worth replacing, it’s worth replacing as soon as possible.
Weather and maintenance determine how long house systems last, and a few-hour inspector doesn’t have enough information to make a good guess, so they will employ misleading language like “near the end of its useful life” to tell clients to start saving for a new one immediately. That vague language isn’t them being evasive – it’s them being honest about what they can’t predict.
6. Whether Building Codes Are Being Met
There are hundreds of building codes per state and hundreds more local and federal codes, home inspectors aren’t required to know any of them even if they often do, and trying to sound smart could land them in trouble since typically only a government official can determine compliance and issue fines. Home inspectors are prohibited from determining compliance with regulations, codes, laws or ordinances.
Inspectors can mention safety concerns that might relate to codes, using them as reference points. However, they have zero legal authority to enforce those codes or declare your electrical panel non-compliant. Only local building officials wield that power.
7. Definitive Presence of Hazardous Materials Like Mold, Asbestos, Lead, or Radon
Mold, lead, asbestos, and radon have very clear processes to establish if they’re in a home and at unsafe levels, and home inspectors may speculate about these things based on the age, style, or location of a home, but they should be encouraging homeowners to get environmental testing. If they see evidence of mold, they cannot say what type you have or even confirm that what they see is definitely mold, but will instead recommend that you get a specialized inspection to diagnose a mold problem.
Anyone buying homes built before 1978 should always contact an environmental testing company, as not saying anything about harmful chemicals is a common technique in the industry to avoid big insurance claims, not a promise that the home is “clean”. This limitation exists because hazardous materials require lab analysis and specialized equipment that standard home inspectors don’t carry.
8. The Full Extent of Pest Infestations
Organisms that degrade wood might hide deep under structural beams where a regular inspection won’t look, and in many places, lenders need a separate legal document called a Wood Destroying Insect report that must be filled out by a trained pest professional. Just because the home inspector didn’t say anything about bugs doesn’t imply the house is clear of them, and authorities tell buyers to always get a separate pest check in addition to the general home inspection.
Your inspector might mention spotting a mouse trap, but they won’t be able to tell you how big the colony is, and if you hire a generalist to do a specialist’s work, you are setting yourself up for a very expensive surprise after you move in. Termites don’t exactly announce their presence with welcome signs.
9. Whether the Home Is Insurable
Home inspectors cannot speculate on the insurability of your home, and even if the inspector notes a variety of issues, they’re not allowed to tell you whether or not they think you’ll have problems insuring your property, as only a professional insurance agent or adjuster can decide if a home is insurable. If you’re concerned about insurability, have an insurance agent come to the property and take a closer look before you make an offer.
Insurance companies have their own criteria for what makes a home too risky to cover. An older roof might be a red flag to one carrier but acceptable to another. Your inspector can identify the problem, but they can’t predict how State Farm or Allstate will react.
10. Specific Contractor Recommendations for Repairs
Home inspectors cannot give recommendations for contractors who could fix issues in your home, as this would be considered unethical, and even though inspectors probably know a lot of competent contractors and carpenters, it is not their job to give any opinions or recommendations on who can work on your home. The InterNACHI member shall not perform or offer to perform, for an additional fee, any repairs to the structure for which they prepared a home inspection report for a period of 12 months.
This rule prevents serious conflicts of interest. Imagine if inspectors could identify problems and then profit from fixing them. The temptation to exaggerate issues would be massive. Some inspectors might offer referrals to testing companies for things like radon, which falls into a gray area, but direct repair recommendations are off limits.
11. Property Boundaries or Legal Encroachments
Home inspectors can only provide insight about how a potential buyer can access property boundary information on their own, and if a client asks an inspector to identify a property line, they’ll likely politely tell them they are not qualified to do so and suggest hiring a professional land surveyor, as inspectors’ area of expertise lies outside of identifying properties’ lines with no exceptions to this rule. Property boundary lines establish the size of a parcel and are set by land surveyors to be outlined on a property plan, and home inspectors do not have a say in this process as it is outside of the inspection process.
That fence between you and the neighbor might look like it’s on the property line, but your inspector won’t confirm it. They’re not trained in surveying, and getting it wrong could create legal nightmares. If boundaries matter to you – and they should – hire a licensed surveyor to map everything out properly.
