{"id":59,"date":"2015-08-27T14:51:09","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T19:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/riskpro.us\/blog\/?p=59"},"modified":"2015-08-27T14:51:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-27T19:51:09","slug":"home-inspectors-and-wind-mitigation-liability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/home-inspectors-and-wind-mitigation-liability\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Inspectors and Wind Mitigation Liability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Home-Inspector-Wind-Mitigation-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-61 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Home-Inspector-Wind-Mitigation-1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"wind mitigation liability\" width=\"359\" height=\"256\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A new and growing service for home inspectors is a Wind Mitigation Inspection (also known as a windstorm mitigation inspection). Home insurance companies offer discounted rates if an inspector assesses a home to be able to withstand high winds brought about by a hurricane, tornado, or other weather related phenomenon. But as with any inspection, there is liability for wind mitigation inspectors.<\/p>\n<h4>The Need for Wind Mitigation Inspections<\/h4>\n<p>Homeowners, especially those in the Southeastern United States, have strong incentives to have a wind mitigation inspection performed by a home inspector.<\/p>\n<h6>For example:<\/h6>\n<ul>\n<li>Deductibles can be excessively high for homes in high wind prone areas<\/li>\n<li>The price of insurance coverage for wind damage can be up to 70 percent of the total cost of the home insurance premium<\/li>\n<li>Substantial credits and discounts (sometimes up to 30%) are offered to home owners whose homes utilize <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nachi.org\/wind-mitigation.htm\" target=\"_blank\">wind resistant building features<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Florida was one of the first states to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridadisaster.org\/mitigation\/Documents\/Wind%20Mitigation%20Booklet%20.pdf\">offer incentives and enact legislation<\/a>. Others are following suit, depending on how prone the area is to high wind. Certain states, or areas within those states such as coastal Texas, now mandate a Wind Mitigation Inspection before a new building is certified.<\/p>\n<p>A home inspector performing a Wind Mitigation Inspection will look for features such as concrete block construction, gable end bracing, proper shutters, roof to wall attachments, hip roof, and property topography.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Wind Mitigation Inspection Liability<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>A home inspector who performs a Wind Mitigation Inspection can be held liable just as with any other inspection. But because Wind Mitigation is a fairly new area, definitions and terms are still being defined and can cause confusion.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent lawsuit, an inspector incorrectly showed a home as possessing a mitigating building feature on the Wind Mitigation Inspection form due to a confusing definition, causing the home to pass inspection. The owner then received the insurance discount. Three years later the home was re-inspected, the mistake was found, and the discount was cancelled. The home inspector was then sued.<\/p>\n<p>Lawsuits like this underscore the need for home inspectors to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/RISKPRO-Professional-Liability-Insurance-Blog\/bid\/122730\/Reduce-Your-Risk-of-a-Home-Inspector-Lawsuit-Part-1.html\">limit their liability<\/a> with Wind Mitigation coverage as an additional part of their Home Inspectors <a href=\"http:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/professional-liability.html\">Professional Liability\/Errors and Omissions<\/a> insurance through <a href=\"http:\/\/riskpro.us\/home-inspector-errors-and-omissions-insurance.html\" target=\"_blank\">RISKPRO<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, an inspector can perform 99 out of 100 inspections error free, but one mistake can result in a lawsuit. Secure the coverage you need today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new and growing service for home inspectors is a Wind Mitigation Inspection (also known as a windstorm mitigation inspection). Home insurance companies offer discounted rates if an inspector assesses a home to be able to withstand high winds brought about by a hurricane, tornado, or other weather related phenomenon. But as with any inspection, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[34,36,49,50,57,58,59,60],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-inspectors","tag-home-inspectors","tag-home-inspectors-liability","tag-professional-liability-insurance","tag-professional-services","tag-wind","tag-wind-mitigation","tag-wind-mitigation-coverage","tag-wind-mitigation-inspections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riskpro.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}