Avoid Inspection Contingency Grey Areas!
When Representing Listing Side:
Recently, I've seen many of my agents make this crucial mistake. They are either not including this in their [SCO] Seller Counter Offer or adding a broad statement when referencing the Inspection Contingency. What they don’t realize, is that the contingencies are now itemized on the RPA Revised 12/22.
The problem: Vague verbiage can leave this to interpretation when it comes to removing the full inspection contingency. Simply typing on a counter: "inspection contingency to be removed.." or "home inspection contingency to be __ days" or "Inspections to be removed" is wayyy to broad because your investigations do NOT just include the home inspection! They include everything listed on RPA paragraph 3L(3) - 3L(L)
When pushing the buy side for the inspection CR, which includes the prelim, seller and buyer reports, seller information, seller disclosures etc., there is lots of pushback and ultimately they sent the CR with a checkbox removing only the physical inspection portion of the investigation & blatantly ignoring request for the full removal.
Why is this important: Because a gray area now exists, there is nothing you can do, the truth is, they are correct and adhering to the contract. A [NBP] Notice to Buyer to Perform or various amount of emails you send will do nothing for you, unless they interpret it the way you meant it and/or agree to remove them early.
How to Avoid this: When you receive an offer where the dates don’t all match for RPA 3L(3)-3L(7) reference the specific paragraphs such as:
“RPA 3L(3) - 3L(7) Inspection contingencies to be removed in ___ days” or type out "All inspection contingencies to be removed in __ days". This will save you the headache of drafting an amendment to try and correct the mistake and avoid the buy side potentially not accepting.
It is important to stay up-to-date on any changes to the California Purchase Agreement (RPA) and to ensure compliance with all requirements related to inspection contingencies when representing the listing side. Feel free to reach out if you want a second pair of eyes 👀
