I have a theoretical question.

If you are inspecting a home and find a large pool of oil/spilled motor oil in a small burough of a backyard, is the inspector required to report it to the DEP or any other environmental protection agency?

Thanks.

No, a home inspector is not "required" to submit anything to anyone other than our client.

A large pool of oil could be a serious problem. The inspector should note it in the inspection report and depending on the particular state may be required under state statute to inform a particular agency or authority.

If you are the agent for the buyer or seller, you too may have a duty to report this problem. The owner has the responsibility to clean it up..

Welcome, Scott. Good to see you contributing over here.

Sometimes local statutes (such as some here in the city of San Diego) require notification from anyone possessing such knowledge. San Diego has a lot of areas currently undergoing cleanups.

Hi Russel,

A Realtor I did an inspection for yesterday told me about this site. Kind of nice to give advice to folks that really need it.

I guess I should have clarified that it may be jurisdiction specific. Thanks for clarifying it guys.

Welcome to the board Scott. It's a differnt perspective over here, which makes it a nice change.

That sounds exactly what I found just the other day. I put a picture in my report and here is what I said.

"This pit in the back yard may have been used for oil disposal. Further testing would be required to confirm that. The soil may be contaminated and reclamation measures may be required. Contact a soils testing lab."
Bruce

a lil question ,since i am a soon to be new agent,sorry for sounding nieve if i find something like that when showing a home,or inspection a house,
i would have to go to my "broker" first before doing anything right??? and what if by chance i stumble on something like that when im with a client/or interested buyer,even after an inspection has been done and it was clean..... yikes now what.?

Eventually you'll become quite adept at noticing the major problems that are sure to be found by a home inspector.

As far as going to your broker first, that's probably broker specific, so whichever broker you sign up with will problem have protocols in place to take care of such cases. I'm sure the major brokers have run into such circumstances before.

I think a qualified home inspector would find such item so that you wouldn't stumble upon it "after an inspection has been done and it was clean." If such happened, though, one would want to contact the home inspector immediately before anything else was done so that he can modify his report as necessary.

If everyone works together and helps each other, the real estate transaction can go very smoothly. Unfortunately, I believe that too many people like to blame someone else for something that was missed, particulary home inspectors. It think it would be nice if a Realtor, any Realtor, were to call me immediately to say, "I think you missed this. Can you come look at it and modify your report for us?"

If I go back and look at it and agree that I missed it, I'd be happy to issue an addendum letter or otherwise modify my report for my Client. The sooner errors are found and corrected, the fewer problems there will be down the road for all interested parties.

A qualified, professional home inspector would spot an such problems and know what to do. Being as you are the agent, he would most likely come to you first. If it is oil, to keep the deal, you could get an expert out there to clean it up and do a survey to make sure everything is ok. Or, you could leave it and move on to a property that isn't as risky.