Texas Realtor Legal/Ethics Article

[Nolan Kienitz]

Got the Sep/Oct 2016 Texas Realtor magazine the other day. It is funded/owned/operated by the Texas Association of Realtors ... big lobby for Texas agents.

Happened across the article I've loaded below. Writer is with a TAR risk-management errors and omissions insurance partner.

Prime item I noted was his suggestion for the listing agent to get a copy of the HI report and attached it to the disclosure documents. As the agent "may" be able to reduce or eliminate their E&O deductible.

Article is sort of written to both listing and buyer's agents.

I seldom see agents (listing or buyer) at my inspections. Several agents have told me over the past few years that their broker(s) have been advising them to not be at the home when I go over my verbal book report with the client. Rather just wait for the report to be delivered.

Many listing agents have said they do NOT want to see the report or have it sent to them due to liability.

Not all are like such, but there are a number.

Click to Enlarge

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[Marc]

Lots of professions don't well understand this animal known as liability. Ours is no exception.

The vast majority of HIs here in Louisiana, including some Board members and some TIJ members, loudly sounded the alarm that HI liabilities would skyrocket when a statutory requirement for HIs to report 'suspected mold growth' was passed. In truth, it went down, because authoritative sources with the what-is-it, what-does-it-mean and what-to-do-about-it had been available on a national level for ten years at the time (fallout from the Great Texas Mold Case).

Failure to report, for whatever reason, carries liabilities. Read Kurt's article about his approach to inspecting hi-rises, same vibe there.

By a different mechanism, liabilities can only go up when the report is swept under the rug by agents.

JMHO

Marc