Purchase and Sale Agreements give Buyers the chance to inspect the property and look for structural issues. Nearly all sale contracts contain a line-in-the-sand provision that prevents Buyers from doing “invasive inspections.” Invasive inspections, sometimes called intrusive inspections, are inspections that do more than a visual evaluation. All of the following are classically considered invasive inspections:
- The inspector is taking pieces of siding or drywall off to look underneath,
- The inspector is slicing a piece of floor tile off for asbestos tests,
- The inspector is probing a pencil into dry rotten segments of the property.
Invasive inspections are typically permissible, but only with the Seller’s approval. If Seller gives the green light to rip the drywall down and look for that bat nest, the inspector can go nuts.
Oregon REALTORS® purchase and sale forms have a unique take on invasive inspections. The Oregon REALTORS® Forms expressly and intentionally call out (1) sewer scopes, (2) mold tests, (3) pest inspections, (4) dry rot inspections, (5) radon tests, and (6) oil tank locates as non-invasive inspections. Other form libraries may consider these types of tests to be invasive, and may require seller approval before the Buyer can do these tests, but the Oregon REALTOR® form Buyer does not need to request seller permission to do these six types of inspections.
Sellers who do not wish to have a radon test occur on the property, or who don’t want buyers to look for pests on the property can simply add a general addendum to the contract that states “Buyer not permitted to do ____ inspection without Seller approval.” Sellers should be cautious, however, about adding this general addendum. When a seller says, “You can’t do dry rot inspections,” it feels a whole lot like the seller is trumpeting to the world, “My house has dry rot.”