PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Ian Robertson
Hey, there IT crowd. Welcome back to Inspector Toolbelt Talk. Today, we’re going to talk about a question that comes up a lot. Should we do an inspection for a tenant? Now let me be clear. First of all, we’re talking about residential tenants. Commercial tenants, that’s a whole different business, whole different situation. So today we’re going to talk about inspecting for residential tenants. So me, as a home inspection company owner, I do not and none of us do any inspections for tenants, and I’ll explain why in just a moment. But the question first that we need to answer is, can a tenant request a home inspection? Is it even legal for them to do it because they don’t own the property?

Well, if we go to Home Inspector Pro, actually they had a really good article that somewhat touched on this in some areas, and I’m actually going to quote them here. So if we look at their website, they have an article on that says, can a tenant request an inspection? Is it legal? Yes, renters can request inspections. Tenant inspection rights and rental inspection laws are fairly consistent across the country and are legal in most cases. But it also brings out that there are a few exceptions. And here’s the first reason why I personally do not inspect per tenants, because I really don’t want to be looking at their lease agreement and trying to interpret it to see if any of these things are valid.

So first of all, while rare, an inspection can violate a renter’s lease if the lease explicitly states they cannot request an inspection. To be honest with you, I’ve seen it before. I didn’t see it directly in the lease. I didn’t review their lease, but I remember explicitly the client saying, even though it says that I can’t get an inspection, yadda yadda yadda. And a lot of especially multi complex owners or people who have multiple properties, they’re going to put something like that in there because they don’t want some home inspector coming in and inspecting their property, calling out 30 different things that are in their opinion, fine, whatever opinion they have going on there. So unless we read their lease, we don’t really know if we have the legal right to be there. With a real estate transaction, we do. Typically that’s going to be baked in. The real estate agents are going to give us access, or someone’s going to give us the code. The seller knows that we’re there, the whole nine yards. So unless we’re reading their lease, we’re not going to know if we have the right to be there.

The second thing is, the tenant has to pay for the inspection themselves. And sometimes tenants will request an inspection, and they’ll say, I love them when they say this, you know the landlord should have to pay for this. So he’ll he’ll send you a check. Landlord probably doesn’t even know about this inspection, so payment issues.

Third point, you can only inspect areas accessible to the tenant, which doesn’t necessarily include the entire property. So for instance, if the tenant has the right to inspect, very likely we can only inspect their unit, their heating unit’s probably in a basement. That’s a common area. We’re probably not going to be able to legally inspect the roof and the outside. So what’s the point of walking around their unit looking at their carpets and windows? We might find a few things, but it’s not going to be the quote, unquote big stuff, like structural issues, which we may we may find those. You know, I’ll acquiesce that we might find a structural issue, but we’re not really going to be able to inspect it fully.

And then the fourth point, and this one is a bit of a stretch for me, but it’s applicable. A local housing authority may have tenant inspection rights and rental inspection laws specific to the community. Now, there is a small city close to me where when we do a home inspection, we actually get an exemption to have to follow these laws, so for instance, they have specific laws in that community for smoke detectors, CO detectors, entrance, egress, the whole nine yards, even their deck and fire escapes. So when we do a home inspection, we actually get an exemption from that. It’s part baked into the law somehow saying home inspection, they have their own SOP from New York State, etc. So if I’m doing an inspection for a tenant, that doesn’t apply, because there’s no real estate transaction, I’m doing an inspection. So technically, in that community, I guess someone could make the argument that, hey, this isn’t a real estate transaction. He’s doing an inspection for a tenant. You know, he has to follow these standards and laws. Again, a little bit of a stretch for me, but I could see it happening. So why would I not do an inspection for a tenant besides these points? Here’s the main reasons.

First of all, the juice always has to be worth the squeeze for me when it comes to an inspection. If I’m going to drive two hours to an inspection, I’m going to want to get paid for my drive time, wear and tear on my vehicle, all that other stuff. If I’m going to be doing a 6000 square foot house, I’m going to charge more to have another inspector there, so there’s two inspectors on the house, and then the coordinating of that and any contractors might come in, specialty inspections, things like that. The juice always has to be worth the squeeze. Inspections for renters are almost never worth the juice. I’ve never seen one that is. I had one that was a, you know, these people were renting this at the time, probably $700,000 house, and it’s like, okay, I can kind of see it, but still not worth the squeeze for me. It’s almost never worth the money. Are we going to get more than a regular inspection for the extra hassle, those four points that we just went over? Reviewing their lease agreement, making sure that we can be there, all this extra hassle, whereas if somebody just calls us for a regular home inspection, we can just say, okay, we’ll be there Thursday at one o’clock. Tenant inspections are going to be more coordinating, more worrying, more researching. You might spend two, three hours before you even show up to the inspection, just looking at things and answering questions and asking questions. So fiscally speaking, I’ve never been able to see why they’re worth it. But that’s not the main reason why.

The main reason why is the possibility of being drawn into landlord tenant litigation. I know attorneys that will not work for tenants or landlords, because the tenant landlord litigation is so messy and so nasty that it’s just not worth it. So think of the reasons why a tenant would want an inspection. How many tenants, if we’re a tenant of a building, how many of us are going to say, you know what, I want to assist my landlord in taking care of the building, so I’d like to get an inspection first to know what I can pay for. That’s not going to happen, right? That’s not what tenants do. Typically, tenants are like, I think there’s a problem, and I want to force my landlord to fix it. So either one, there isn’t a problem, but the tenants are making a big deal about it, or there is a problem and the landlord’s ignoring it. So usually, by the time they’ve called us in, things have hit a really rough point in their relationship. So do we really want to be dragged into the litigation?

Now here’s the thing with the litigation too. We’re not talking expert witness testimony, which, if you haven’t listened to our podcast on that, go back and listen to it. Great business. We’re not going to be called in as expert witness testimony for litigation for an inspection that we did. We’re just going to get subpoenaed. So now we did a two hour inspection, maybe we made 500, 600 bucks, whatever, and two, three hour inspection. And now we spent two hours ahead of time, reading over their lease, trying to figure out if we can inspect, dealing with questions. And then afterwards, we have two police officers pull up into our driveway and give us a subpoena. We have to be in court next week, all right. So now we have to cancel an inspection. We sit there all morning. They try to get them to go to mediation. They don’t. So they adjourn it till the next time. So then we go back again, and then we’re called to the witness stand. We answer all these questions, then we might get called back again, then they might go to mediation. Oh my goodness, we have just spent four days of time for a one time inspection. It’s not fun, and let’s look at it from the landlord’s perspective too. Let’s say you are an unscrupulous landlord. I don’t think there’s as many unscrupulous landlords as people say. I’ve met some really great landlords and some unscrupulous tenants, and I’ve met some unscrupulous landlords and really great tenants. It’s a mixed bag. But let’s say we’re an unscrupulous, unscrupulous, you say that word long enough, it doesn’t sound like a word anymore. A bad landlord. So now is he going to casually go, oh, you know what? I’m gonna leave this inspector alone. Let’s see what the courts say. No, he’s gonna wreck us. He’s gonna call us, yelling and screaming. His attorneys are going to come after us. He’s going to bad mouth us to agents. He’s going to leave us bad reviews all over and have all his family leave us bad reviews all over. Man, if we’ve ever been a part of any of that, we want a million miles away from it.

So then comes in some other issues. So besides that, we don’t really have a clear scope of expectation. So remember, when we’re inspecting for real estate, we know what the expectation is. Does this work or does this not? A tenant views it as a very different type of inspection. Should it be fixed or not? Is this healthy for me and my family or not? Okay. It gets a little bit squishy there, like it’s not going to be as clear cut. So if I walk in and there’s an older heating unit and it’s functioning fine, I’m going to say, older heating unit functioning fine. May go at any time. But now the tenant is going to say, well, I’m living here with this unit. I have no right to replace it. What can I do to get the landlord to replace this? Or the most common thing I’ve heard tenants say is lead paint. Is this lead paint peeling going to be bad for my family? Well, yeah, but I’m not a lead paint inspector here. I’m not testing for lead. So there’s a different expectation with the tenant versus a regular real estate transaction.

So the other thing that we want to mention, which we’ve already kind of touched on, is access, authority and boundary issues. What do we have the right to inspect and what do we not? So for instance, let’s give the example of we’re walking through the tenant apartment, and they showed us their lease. They have a right to inspect, but it excludes common areas. So now they say the basement is not a common area. It’s where I go to do laundry. Okay. So we go down, we do the inspection, and all of a sudden a landlord is like, what are you doing in my basement? You have no right to be there, and it’s in our report. We might be in some hot water, because there’s some arguable what’s a common space, happening there? It’s like, well, the other attendant is allowed in there. They just don’t. That is a common space. It’s in a different part of the lease that you missed or not in the lease but it’s just common knowledge. Attic spaces, second floor apartment, oh, yeah, you can go up in the attic. It’s right there. You can only access it through my apartment. Isn’t an attic space a common space to a building? Do we skip that, or do we go in? So access, authority and boundary issues really become a problem pretty quick with a tenant inspection. Then reporting obligations and regulatory code issues. We already touched on that slightly, but if we have an SOP with our state as home inspectors, we have to generally speaking give a good reason why we didn’t inspect something. So is it that we did not know that it was a common space? We’re going to be disclaiming large sections of our report. We’re going to have an unhappy client. We’re going to have a landlord that’s not happy that we’re there, and if there’s even a slight mistake, like we didn’t inspect the, you know, the basement sink, and we didn’t write that down, and now the tenant who is already in litigation with an attorney, the attorney is like, oh, well, let’s ping him on this now too, because they’re just shotgunning everything with a lawsuit. So there’s some squishy stuff happening there that personally, I like to avoid. I like to do a home inspection. I like to have happy clients. I like to go home afterwards. I don’t like to have the next six months be littered with phone calls and litigation and things like that.

Another point is insurance and professional liability exposure. Check with your insurance company, because many errors and emissions providers and things like that might not include doing an inspection for a renter for those very reasons. They don’t want to have third party obligations. So now we may not have a legal standing, so to speak. And again, I’m not an attorney, always check with your attorney on all of this stuff. But we may not have a legal standing with the landlord, but he may make it like he kind of does. So now, our insurance kind of needs to get involved, and they’re not going to like that. They may not cover us, or if they do cover us, or our rates go up, or whatever else happens, also marketing and client confusion. Rental inspections are not the same as a home inspection, and if we advertise that we inspect rental properties, is it going to be like for investors or for the actual tenant?

So, these are the reasons why, in my professional opinion, in my personal opinion, rather, we as inspectors really probably don’t want to be messing with the whole rental inspection situation. Let them get specialists, let them get a local rental inspector. A lot of municipalities have that. Have them get their own contractors, a general contractor, whatever it takes, so that they can be satisfied with what they need. But ultimately, for us, the juice is not worth the squeeze. But listen, you have a different opinion, you love doing rental inspections, or maybe you’re in a municipality like Baltimore that has a special program that you’re part of, cool. Leave some comments, we’d love to hear from you. Argue with me, agree with me, whichever you like, but either way, thank you for listening, and we’ll see you on the next episode of Inspector Toolbelt Talk.

Outro: On behalf of myself, Ian, and the entire ITB team, thank you for listening to this episode of Inspector Toolbelt Talk. We also love hearing your feedback, so please drop us a line at [email protected].

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*The views and opinions expressed in this podcast, and the guests on it, do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Inspector Toolbelt and its associates.

PODCAST SUMMARY/BLOG

Tenant inspections sound simple: a renter calls, an inspector shows up, a report follows. But beneath that surface lies a tangle of lease clauses, access limits, local rules, and legal risks that can quickly turn a small service call into weeks of time and stress. The first hurdle is legality and consent. While tenants in many regions can request inspections, leases sometimes prohibit third-party evaluations or restrict access to common areas such as basements, attics, roofs, and exterior spaces. Without clear permission and coordination with the property owner or manager, an inspector may lack the authority to be on site, creating exposure before the first photo is taken. Even when allowed, the tenant must pay, and landlords often don’t know the inspection is happening, which complicates scope and expectations.

The scope problem is significant. A standard home inspection aims to evaluate systems and components for function and safety at the time of the inspection. Tenants often want something else: leverage. They are typically asking whether a landlord must fix an item, whether a space is healthy for their family, or whether an aging system should be replaced. Those are different questions than a pre-purchase inspection answers, and they often require specialized testing, code enforcement involvement, or a rental inspection program rather than a generalist home inspection governed by a state SOP. If the inspector can only review the unit’s interior and not the roof, exterior, service equipment, or shared mechanicals, the report becomes heavily disclaimed, which frustrates tenants and inflames landlords.

Local regulations add another layer. Some municipalities carve out exemptions for real estate transaction inspections but require rental units to meet specific safety and habitability standards enforced by housing authorities. When an inspector evaluates a tenant’s unit outside a sale, those exemptions may not apply. That means an inspection could be misread as a code check, or worse, as a certification of compliance. The inspector may be expected to cite ordinances, verify smoke and CO detector placement, assess egress, or inspect fire escapes—tasks often beyond a home inspection SOP. Navigating these expectations without crossing legal or professional boundaries demands careful disclosures, which many clients overlook.

Financially, tenant inspections rarely pencil out. The added pre-inspection time to review leases, confirm access, and answer legal questions can consume hours. On site, restricted access slows the process while shrinking the report’s usefulness. Afterward, inspectors face the real risk of being drawn into landlord–tenant disputes. Subpoenas—not expert witness engagements—are common when relationships break down. A single two-hour inspection can lead to multiple days in court, rescheduling paid work, and strained client relationships. Even if the inspector is not at fault, involvement costs time, money, and focus.

Then there is insurance. Many E&O policies either exclude tenant-focused inspections or treat them as higher risk because of third-party claims, unclear contractual relationships, and heightened likelihood of litigation. One dispute can trigger premium increases, coverage questions, or non-renewals. Marketing also gets messy. Advertising “rental inspections” confuses investors, property managers, and tenants, who each expect different deliverables. The result is misaligned expectations, which often leads to poor reviews and reputation risk.

A better path exists. Refer tenants to appropriate channels: municipal rental inspection programs, code enforcement for habitability issues, and licensed specialists for targeted concerns like mold, lead, or HVAC performance. Encourage written maintenance requests, photo documentation, and communication through proper legal channels. For inspectors, reserve comprehensive services for transactions or for investor clients with clear authority and access. If you do consider tenant work, require written owner authorization, define a tight scope, limit accessible areas in writing, and ensure your insurer agrees in advance.

At the heart of it all is clarity. Home inspection SOPs are designed for real estate decisions, not landlord–tenant leverage or code enforcement. When access is limited, authority is unclear, and emotions run high, the juice rarely matches the squeeze. Protect your business by aligning services with your expertise, your coverage, and your appetite for risk. Guide renters toward the right resources, and keep your practice focused, consistent, and sustainable.