If You Ignore The Report, You Own The Risk

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Ever wondered why some buyers breeze through homeownership while others drown in repairs and denied claims? The difference often comes down to one unglamorous step: reading the inspection report and taking action before problems spread. We walk through the real costs of ignoring red flags like moisture, mold, and chimney defects, and we share a clear framework for deciding what to fix now, what to monitor, and what can wait without risking your health or your budget.

We break down why moisture is the fastest way to ruin a house and how a small leak can fuel mold growth within 48 hours. From missing flue tiles that can spark a house fire to sump pump discharge lines that quietly soak finished spaces, you’ll hear practical examples that make the stakes clear. We also explain how insurers evaluate negligence and why failing to mitigate active damage can get your claim slashed, even if the initial failure was covered. Documentation, timelines, and decisive steps are your best protection.

If you’re under contract, use the report as leverage: schedule specialist evaluations, gather quotes, and negotiate repairs or credits before closing. Already a homeowner? Set a two-year maintenance rhythm that pairs a radon test with a targeted inspection, especially for moisture-prone areas like basements, attics, and bathrooms. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s smart triage. Prioritise anything that spreads damage, threatens air quality, or poses a fire or shock hazard, and let the cosmetic quirks wait until time and budget allow.

Whether you’re a first-time buyer or a seasoned owner, this conversation gives you a calm, proven path from inspection to action. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s house hunting, and leave a review to tell us your top must-fix item after an inspection.

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To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com) 

NBC4 news segments: The importance of home inspections, and what to look for | NBC4 WCMH-TV

Advice from experts: Don’t skip the home inspection | NBC4 WCMH-TV

OSU student’s mysterious symptoms end up tied to apartment’s air quality | NBC4 WCMH-TV

How to save money by winterizing your home | NBC4 WCMH-TV

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Hey everybody, it's Jim and the office goddess
Laura.

SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
Hello, everyone.
Alright, so I thought you weregonna call me the Laura.

SPEAKER_01 (00:08):
The Laura.
The Lorax.
That's because you plant lots oftrees.
Well, you have planted like50-some like fruit trees, berry
bushes, all kinds of things hereon the property.
Which I think you just want piesin your future.
I do want pies.
Is this the third year thatyou've planted the trees?

(00:29):
Some of it's the fourth.
We should be getting some fruittrees this year.
We had a peach last year, theyear before, but we cut it off
because we wanted the tree tofocus on growing its branches
instead of growing fruit.

SPEAKER_02 (00:43):
We we need to trim them off the top this year so
that uh they can start being alittle more stout.

SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Like power lifters.

SPEAKER_02 (00:52):
Like power lifters, yeah.
Short and and stout and sturdy.

SPEAKER_01 (00:56):
Strong as crap.

SPEAKER_02 (00:57):
Like little dwarves.

SPEAKER_01 (00:58):
They can handle all the uh all the wind and
everything, and the weight ofthe fruit that they're gonna
bear.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03):
That's the impression.

SPEAKER_01 (01:05):
Because our last house, we did not trim the apple
tree.
It broke some branches becauseall the weight of all the
apples.

SPEAKER_02 (01:10):
I should have trimmed some of those apples
off.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
We need to trim.
So anyway, what I was gonna talkabout here.
We got distracted.
Sorry.
We got we got distracted.
So you did the right thing.
You had a home inspection, okay?
First of all, right thing youhad an agent that you you you
like and trust.
Okay, first you gotta have that.
If you didn't know of any agentto use, well, maybe you contact

(01:36):
a home inspector in the area andgo, hey, I'm I'm looking to buy
a house.
This is the area.
This is the area.
I have these three agents I'mthinking about working with,
which ones would you recommend,or is any anyone there you would
recommend and you know I avoid.
Anyway, you got you got yourselfan agent.
Fantastic.
And you bought that and you wenta contract, you had the home

(02:00):
inspection.

But here's the important thing: when you get things in your (02:02):
undefined
report, you have to act uponthose things.

SPEAKER_02 (02:10):
Well, first of all, wait, wait, wait, let's back up.
You have to read the reportfirst.
Yes, do you know how many timeswe've had people call and ask a
question because they had somehandyman, Joe Schmo, come in and
say, Oh my god, your homeinspection company could have
caught this, you're sh theyshould have caught this.
And the first question we askis, Well, did you read your
report?

(02:30):
And nine times out of ten,they'll say no.

SPEAKER_01 (02:34):
Because that's in the report.
Because it's in the report.
Well, so yeah, you get theinspection, you have to read the
report.
Do not say, hey, I'm gonna giveit to my agent.
My brother or my agent or myneighbor to read the report for
me.

SPEAKER_02 (02:50):
You bought it, you're moving to the house, you
need to read it.

SPEAKER_01 (02:55):
You need to read it yourself and understand.
Because we've had this has beena while ago.
We had a per a person who theycontacted and were complaining
about something, and I looked itup.
I'm like, and I'm like, here'shere's the report.
Did you read it?

(03:16):
Like, no.
I I I had my agent read up myage, I guess my re agent, my
agent said there's there'snothing nothing on there.
I'm like, wow.
It's number uh, it's number 86in the report.
You look that up.
So and but didn't I didn't hearany more about that, but no,

(03:39):
it's your house, you need toread the report, and agents, you
need to make certain your clientreads that report.

SPEAKER_02 (03:46):
You don't want to accept liability for something
if you say, Oh, well, there'snothing wrong with the house,
and then you've got number 86and 124, and you know, whatever,
they're gonna come back on youbecause they're gonna be pissed,
and you're the one that said,Oh, well, there wasn't a problem
with the report.

SPEAKER_00 (04:05):
Yes.

SPEAKER_02 (04:05):
And keep in mind, what's not a problem to you may
be a huge problem to them.
So you can't just talk for them.
You you need to actually know.

SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
Well, yeah, and like mold.
It some molds can grow veryrapidly.
You're talking about 24, 48hours, all of a sudden you can
see it all over the place.
If your if your uh inspectionnotes a little bit of mold
growth or moisture, you need toget that taken care of.
You don't let that you don't youdon't ignore that for months and

(04:37):
months, and then think, well, II need to complain to something
because there's there's mold inmy house.
I'm like There was three monthsago, you should have three
months ago.

SPEAKER_02 (04:47):
You should have found out why it was wet and
growing it four months ago.
What did you do about that?
Nothing.

SPEAKER_00 (04:54):
Habitation investigation is the way to go.
For a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed home inspectorsfor your needs.
From radon to malt to warranty.
For a great home inspection, youreally can't go wrong.

(05:15):
Visit home inspections inOhio.com.

SPEAKER_01 (05:20):
No, it's do do not abdicate the responsibility of
taking care of what is now yourhouse.
And that starts by taking yourreport and making certain that
you get important things fixed.
Now, what's important?
That's gonna be for you todecide.
But if you like, let's say it'sa it's a you got a five

(05:42):
wood-burning fireplace.
You just you uh and you got usto do the chimney scope, okay?
We scope the chimney.
Yeah, there's a you're you're amissing flu tile up there.
You really need to get thatfixed.
If you ignore that and you setyour house on fire two months
later, you have nobody to blamebut yourself.

(06:04):
You it's your responsibility totake care of your house, and
that starts by having anaccurate home inspection.
And oh home inspections are notperfect, they don't they can't
catch every little thing.
They're definitely gonna catchsome major stuff.
And when they catch that stuff,you need to act upon it.

SPEAKER_02 (06:20):
Which means that prior to closing, you make sure
that if there's something inthat report that you're not sure
about or that you think is goingto concern you, you have a
specialist look at that.
You figure out what's going on.
Is that something that you canlive with?
Or do you need to have it fixedbefore you close?

(06:41):
Like you need to figure thesethings out.
And then having remorse whenyou've been there for three or
four months and there's now moremold growing, but you haven't
fixed the wet areas, the leaks,the moisture intrusion, you
didn't get, you know,remediation of the mold in the
first place, you it's going tohappen, but that's on you

(07:03):
because it was in the report andyou didn't deal with it.

SPEAKER_01 (07:06):
That reminds me of insurance claims.

SPEAKER_02 (07:07):
Right.
I was just gonna say that.

SPEAKER_01 (07:08):
If you have uh, let's say a bathtub leak, your
bathtub leaks.
Well, no, no, uh, let's say youyou got a um um a pipe burst.

SPEAKER_02 (07:19):
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (07:20):
Pipe but it's it's cold out, that makes sense.
You know, whose bit pipe breaks,so it's flooding.
You decide not to shut off thewater and you call in insurance
company a week later and try andmake a claim.
They are not going to cover yourclaim because you it's uh you
are minimization of damage.

(07:41):
You you are required to do notlet continued damage happen.
Ignore the situation that allowsthings to get worse, gives the
insurance company an out.
They are not responsible.
Now they might go, all right,it'll pay for that pipe, but
mold growth and all this rodthat you allow to happen because

(08:02):
you waited one week to shuttheir water off and you never
did have the water drained out,they're gonna put that 100% on
you, the buyer, or I should sayhomeowner at that point.
Yep.

SPEAKER_02 (08:14):
And in fact, the way insurance is going, they may
even get snippy about whether ornot they want to insure you down
the road.

SPEAKER_01 (08:22):
So if they get snippy, yes.

SPEAKER_02 (08:25):
Well, I'm trying to be nice, but you know, there's a
lot of things we're hearingabout home insurance companies,
and they've, you know, withthings changing, storms being
worse, they have gotten shakierabout I don't know if storms
have gotten worse or it can oris the construction getting a

(08:48):
little uh not a little shadier,yes.

SPEAKER_01 (08:52):
I do know was it last year?
Last year or year before there'sa report that like ten insurance
carriers either went out ofbusiness or bailed out of
covering any house in Florida.

SPEAKER_02 (09:05):
And then California had a bunch pull out too because
of like the fire loss and abunch of stuff like that.
Well, and then there was likeanother law that got passed, and
I can't remember.

SPEAKER_01 (09:16):
California had some uh weird laws.
Well I think the insurancecompany you're required to clean
up all the debris around areas.
California failed to do that.
The state.
Oh so the state has someresponsibilities.
In fact, I'm pretty certaininsurance carriers goes, hey,
you need to clean this stuff up,or we have to drop you.

(09:39):
Nothing.
Nothing done.

SPEAKER_02 (09:42):
And that's why they dropped.

SPEAKER_01 (09:43):
Sad story.
But anyway.
I can't think we're gonna gowith that one.
I don't know.
I'll bring one blank again.

SPEAKER_02 (09:53):
Oh, baby, that's so easy.
I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01 (09:56):
So, but anyway, it's your responsibility.
Do not let things just dwell onbecause yeah, insurance is not
gonna cover.
That's what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 (10:04):
Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 (10:06):
Which reminds me, we should do an episode on going
through the home inspection uhsample or a made-up home
inspection report and go, hey,these are things that you really
need to take care of becausethey're gonna get worse if you
allow them to continue.
Where you got hey, you got apiece of broken floor tile, you

(10:26):
can leave that there for 20years and nothing else in your
house is going to get affected.
Right?
Well we did for a while.
Some things like eh, all right.
I mean, our house, there'sthere's some our house now,
there's some things that I I'm Isee that's not quite right, but
affects nothing else.

SPEAKER_02 (10:45):
I'm like, we don't have the time, so we're just
ignoring it.

SPEAKER_01 (10:48):
Yeah, well, it's it's not important.
But Laura, look at the doorright there.
It's slightly crooked.

SPEAKER_02 (10:52):
Oh, see that's gonna bother me now.
Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 (10:55):
You're welcome.
Well, there's another door likethat in the bathroom.

SPEAKER_02 (10:59):
And I haven't seen it, so she's see.

SPEAKER_01 (11:01):
They're so subtle.
See, you get inspector vision,you see everything, you can't
shut it off.
You go to a restaurant,somewhere like, holy shit.
Why is the way not gonna be agood one?

SPEAKER_02 (11:09):
Because like we're gonna be driving by somewhere,
and all of a sudden I'll belike, Oh, do you see that roof?

SPEAKER_01 (11:13):
That roof is jacked.

SPEAKER_02 (11:14):
Holy crap.
And you're just like, Yep,that's my girl.

SPEAKER_01 (11:18):
But that there, that's just a little adjustment
on the hinge.
That's all it is.
Now, hanging doors, I suck athanging doors.
There's not easy.
I built that sauna, doors notright.
It sucks.
Well, I build it so so I don'twant being tight because if
somebody says we're in there, weget you get dizzy, you're gonna
pass out.
I want you to be able to justlean against it.

(11:39):
You lean against the door, putyou out.
That's why I designed I have itdesigned that way with safety in
mind, but I I want to lookbetter.

SPEAKER_00 (11:48):
You're so cute.

SPEAKER_01 (11:49):
That's about it.
So, anyway, I think that's themessage on this one.
If you have an issue with yourhouse, whether it's a house
you're buying or your currenthouse, you need to get the issue
taken care of.
Which reminds me, maintenanceinspections, home inspections
are not just for when you'rebuying a house, it could be when
you own a house and you want tomake certain you're not missing

(12:12):
any maintenance issues.

SPEAKER_02 (12:13):
I call it my honeydew list.

SPEAKER_01 (12:15):
Yes, that's yes, you do.
But we have we've had somepeople do them every two years,
which is the same time framethat the EPA tells you to get
your radon tested every twoyears.
So every two years, get yourradon tested and then have a
home inspector do an inspectionon your house.
Even it's just the moistureinspection, that's fine because

(12:35):
moisture is a root can ruin anyhouse given enough time and uh
volume.

SPEAKER_02 (12:41):
Well, that's and anything that can go on like
that can do a lot of damage withmoisture and mold and attics and
basements.
Like that one guy, he and hiswife were debating about the
fact that you know she keptfeeling ill, and it was when
this happened and this happened,and he didn't believe her, and
he didn't believe her.

(13:01):
We're there and in five minutesfigure out what the problem is.

SPEAKER_01 (13:03):
Oh, that sump pump.
The sump pump.
The pipe, the discharge pipebecame disconnected, so every
time it went off, spraying waterall over the corner.

SPEAKER_02 (13:11):
Which then went across the floor into the living
space into the finished spaceand a couple of carpets they had
laying beside the bed that werecompletely saturated with
moisture.
And then mold growth.
And then mold growth, which iswhy she was getting sick.

SPEAKER_01 (13:28):
Yep.
So every two years, get yourhouse inspected, even it's just
a moisture inspection.
Uh uh, get get that done, andthen get your radon test done.
But then, yeah, get it.

SPEAKER_02 (13:44):
Much less know what they're looking at.
Or have the desire to have theor have the desire or the time,
any of that.
So just you know, all right,have an inspection done.

SPEAKER_01 (13:53):
That's that's it on this one.
Do not let issues linger andbecome a bigger problem.
Don't let them fester.
Don't let them fester.
All right.
Bye, everybody.
Bye.