A home inspector job often revolves around investigation of a soon to be purchase home and for your client, this may be the single yet the largest purchase they make. It is true that being a home inspector means that you have to deal with a lot of expectations and there are emotions included in the job as well. As you do your job, there are potential pitfalls that you might encounter and that is why there is a need for a home inspector insurance.
Potential pitfalls that a home inspector may encounter are divided into two categories:
- Physical damage to people or property
- Mistakes or misses in inspection or reporting
There are two types of insurance coverage for the protection of these two potential perils:
- General Liability
- Professional Liability or Errors and Omissions
General liability hazards
This can be defined as a bodily injury and property damage to a third party. If a home inspector caused damage to a third party’s property or person while he or she is doing his or her job, the home inspector might incur a General Liability claim. To help you understand it more, here is an example:
Example:
If you are inspecting a house that you can access through the floor, you forgot to close the cover and suddenly, the owner accidentally falls in through that cover that you left open and unfortunately, he or she broke his or her arm. The injuries that were acquired as a result of the fall would be a General Liability claim.
Professional Liability Claim
“It is an insurance coverage that protects and defends professional advice and service-providing individuals and companies from a negligence claim and damages aware in such a civil lawsuit.” One great way to better explain this particular home inspector insurance coverage is that if you as a home inspector, failed to notice a defect during your inspection or you notice the defect but you failed to report it. Either way, it simply means that you have made an errors or omitted something from the inspection.
Since both types of perils exist, it is sensible that a home inspector get both types of home inspector insurance. So, when you are looking for a policy, you have to make sure that you secure a coverage that will provide you with coverage for both types of perils that are mentioned above.