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 A Message from John
Barnett, President/CEO
Hello Home
Inspectors, Allow me to introduce myself; I'm John
Barnett, President of QuanTEM Laboratories. We are an
environmental laboratory and have been supporting environmental
professionals throughout the United States as well as several
foreign countries for 20 years. As a Home
Inspector you are aware that mold is becoming a larger problem every
year. Well let me tell you something, for real estate
professionals it's not mold which is the problem, the rub comes in
the reporting and how it is handled. Mold should never be
thought of as a DEAL BREAKER, but as a situation handled similar to
bad wiring, plumbing or roofing. For years we
have worked with mold investigators to educate them in performing
their duties in a professional manner. Over the past several
years we have been working with Home Inspectors such as
yourself. Our intent is to help you control your liability, provide
the services your customers expect and at the same time make
your inspections a little more
profitable. These are the points we will be
highlighting in the Home Inspector Newsletter and our upcoming Home
Inspector Mold Training course. This is an on-line interactive
half day course specifically directed at helping you provide
additional services to your customer while increasing your earnings
and at the same time limiting the liability you presently
carry. I look forward to talking with you in the coming
months and I wish each one of you the very best in 2009.
John
E. Barnett President QuanTEM Laboratories, LLC
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QuanTEM Home Inspector News - January
2009
QuanTEM Laboratories
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Existing Home
Sales - January Report
Last Updated: 12/31/2008
Home Sales
Pace
Sales of existing U.S. homes fell in
November, according to the National Association of Realtors, by 8.6
percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.49 million units, a
decrease from 4.91 million the previous month. Sales were also off
by 10.6 percent from October 2007 figures.
The national median home price also
dropped in November, falling to $181,300 from $186,500 in October.
The median price one year earlier was $208,700.
The NAR defines existing homes as all
previously owned single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, and
co-ops. The group "seasonally adjusts" the sales numbers to factor
in things like inclement weather, school sessions, winter holidays,
etc to smooth out the trends. The NAR also describes its sales data
based on an annual pace. The monthly figure represents the total
number of housing units sold in one year if the current rate were to
continue unchanged.
Read more about Home Prices and
Regional info: Click
Here
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Stop Growing Mold In Your Home
The information in this post goes beyond the standards of a
normal home inspection. It is rather detailed. However, the issues
described are problems that a home inspector sees and, periodically,
might have to report on. The topic is high humidity levels inside
the home. High humidity can lead to a myriad of problems in the
home.
First, in analyzing homes, we are usually
concerned with relative humidity (RH) and that is a percentage
of the moisture in the air. Air is saturated at 100%. It cannot hold
any more moisture so, when air is saturated, condensation forms
on surfaces. We start seeing obvious problems when that
occurs.
Another fact: The warmer the air, the more moisture
it can accommodate without condensation forming. But, when the
temperature goes down in a home (overnight hours) the cool air
is less able to hold moisture without condensation. If we study
a home that is 70 degrees F and the RH is 50%, what happens
if the temperature goes down to 49 degrees F? Simple answer:
The relative humidity shoots up to 100% and we get
condensation.
To learn more about
what to look for concerning mold and RH Click
Here
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Verdict returned in Daniel Island
Mold
Lawsuit
In one of several lawsuits over
mold-infested homes on Daniel Island, a jury is telling Prudential
Carolina Real Estate to cough up $125,000 for not providing mold
reports on a couple's house. The couple in question, Dana Winters
and Daniella Winters, were asking for a much higher sum: $1.5
million.
The verdict isn't final yet, because a judge still
has to give it the final OK, but the trial portion is finished in
the case. The Post and Courier has the full story:
Read
more about this verdict HERE
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Home
inspectors learning more about dangerous Chinese
drywall
Updated: Jan
14, 2009 10:24 PM
LAKEWOOD RANCH - And now a
follow up to the story we first brought you on Monday. A
Lakewood Ranch woman hasn't been living in her home for more than a
year. She says it is because of Chinese-made
drywall.
Now home inspectors are learning about the problem
and how to spot it.
Home inspectors here on the Suncoast say
Chinese drywall is in our area, and your home could be built with
it. A seminar Wednesday night gave home inspectors a closer
look at the problems that some say come from the
drywall.
"The minute you walk in, it hits you...(slap hands
together)...just like that. You know something's not right,"
says construction consultant Michael Foreman. It's the drywall
that is all wrong. Foreman says Chinese drywall makes the home
smell like sulfur.
Wednesday night, home inspectors from the
Southwest Florida chapter of the American Society of Home Inspectors
were learning about this drywall and the potential hazards.
"What we are finding out is that it may affect the wiring, and so
that is an important item. So from that standpoint alone at
this point, I don't see any other ramification other than to remove
it," says chapter president Robert Kraus.
Full
coverage
HERE
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LAW: Mold
Liability
BY GARY W.
JACKSON
Mixed
signals
There's no definitive evidence linking
mold to brain damage, reproductive problems, or cancer, according to
a widely covered spring 2004 report issued by the Institute of
Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences. But that
doesn't mean mold liability claims and buyers' concerns about mold
have dried up. Indeed mold claims show no signs of slowing, even
though court rulings have been inconsistent. There've been some
spectacular awards as well as some dismissals in high-profile
cases.
More troubling is that the insurance industry has
greatly reduced its mold claims burden. Many states have approved
exclusions to or caps on mold liability in homeowners' and
property-casualty insurance policies. In numerous jurisdictions, new
statutes and court decisions have also reduced general contractors'
potential liability. Thus,
buyers who've discovered mold problems in their homes have been
forced to seek other avenues of recovery, including lenders,
sellers, and, in a few cases, real estate
professionals.
Suits that name practitioners tend to
be related to fraud, claiming, for instance, a broker had knowledge
that significant amounts of mold were present in a home but withheld
that knowledge from buyers.
Also because buyers tend to think
of you as an expert-even though you aren't legally expected to have
special knowledge about mold and, therefore, shouldn't offer
opinions on mold's potential risk-you could be sued for negligence
or negligent misrepresentation.
Are you at risk, read HERE. | |
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