(a) The Texas Real Estate Commission adopts by reference Property Inspection Report, REI 7A-0, approved by the Texas Real Estate Commission in 1998 and published and available from the Texas Real Estate Commission, P.O. Box 12188, Austin, Texas 78711-2188. (b) Except as provided by this section, inspections performed for a prospective buyer or prospective seller of one-to-four family residential property must be reported on Form REI 7A-0 ("the form"). Licensed inspectors shall complete the applicable portions of the form and provide the report within a reasonable period of time to the persons for whom the inspection has been performed. If necessary to report the inspection of a part, component or system not contained in the form, or space provided on the form is inadequate for a complete reporting of the inspection, such as when the inspector provides a higher level of inspection performance than that required by the standards of practice adopted by the commission, the inspector may attach additional pages to the form. When providing comments or additional pages to report on items listed on a form, the inspector shall arrange the comments or additional pages to follow the sequence of the items listed in the form adopted by the commission. If a part, component or system contained in the form is present in the property and has not been inspected under the departure provisions of §535.227 of this title (relating to Standards of Practice: General Provisions), the inspector shall make an appropriate notation on the form, clearly indicating the reason the part, component, or system has not been inspected. (c) Inspectors may reproduce the form adopted by the commission from printed copies obtained from the commission and by computer. With the exception of the changes to the form which are permitted by this section, the inspector shall reproduce the text of the form verbatim and the spacing, length of blanks, borders, fonts and placement of text on the page must appear to be identical to that used by the commission in the printed version of the form. Inspectors may insert information in the spaces provided for that purpose. (d) When using form REI 7A-0, the inspector may make the following changes. (1) The inspector may select the type and size of the fonts, provided the fonts are no smaller than those used in the printed version of the form adopted by the commission. (2) The inspector may use legal sized (8 1/2" by 14") paper. (3) The inspector may select the information to be inserted below the caption "Property Inspection Report" and above the text of the form relating to TREC rules; however, the inspector must include the name of the inspector's client, the address or other identification of the inspected property, the date the inspection was performed, and the name and license number of any inspector participating in the inspection. If the person performing the inspection is licensed as an apprentice inspector or real estate inspector, the license number and name of the inspector's sponsor also must be included, and the inspector supervising an apprentice must sign the report. (4) The inspector may select other information to be inserted in the space on the first page of the report reserved for that purpose; provided the caption "Additional Information Provided By Inspector" is not deleted. (5) The inspector may delete inapplicable provisions relating to the optional systems and re-letter the remaining provisions. (6) The inspector may add footers to each page of the report except the first page and may add headers to each page of the report. (7) Whether the form is reproduced by computer or is preprinted by the inspector, the inspector may allocate such space for comments as the inspector deems necessary or may attach additional pages of comments to the report. (8) The inspector may renumber the pages of the form to correspond with any changes made necessary due to adjusting the space for comments or deleting text. (9) The inspector may list other built-in appliances and additional captions, letters and check boxes for those items. (10) The inspector may add numbers or letters in parentheses to the right of the caption for each item and may place the property identification and page number either at the top or bottom of the page. (e) This section does not apply to inspections performed for a lender or for a person other than the prospective buyer or prospective seller. (f) This section does not apply to quality control construction inspections of new homes, including phased construction inspections, inspections performed solely to determine compliance with building codes, warranty or underwriting requirements, or inspections required by a municipality and the builder requires use of a different report, and the first page of the report contains a notice either in bold or underlined reading substantially similar to the following: "This report was prepared for a builder or builder's employee in accordance with the builder's requirements. The report is not intended as a substitute for an inspection of the property by an inspector of the buyer's choice. Standard inspections performed by a Texas Real Estate Commission licensee and reported on Texas Real Estate Commission promulgated report forms may contain additional information a buyer should consider in making a decision to purchase." If a report form required for use by the builder or builder's employee does not contain the notice, the inspector may attach the notice to the first page of the report at the time the report is prepared by the inspector. If the inspector attaches the notice, the inspector is not required to use a form adopted by the commission to report the inspection. (g) This section does not apply to the following: (1) of remodeling or re-inspections; (2) inspections for which federal or state law requires use of a different report; or (3) inspections for which a relocation company or a seller's employer requires use of a different report, and the first page of the report contains a notice either in bold or underlined print reading substantially similar to the following: "This report was prepared for a relocation company or seller's employer in accordance with the company's requirements. The report is not intended as a substitute for an inspection of the property by an inspector of the buyer's choice. Standard inspection reports required by the Texas Real Estate Commission may contain additional information a buyer should consider in making a decision to purchase." If the report form required by the relocation company or seller's employer does not contain the notice, the inspector may attach the notice to the first page of the report at the time the report is prepared by the inspector. If the inspector attaches the notice, the inspector is not required to use a form adopted by the commission to report the inspection. (h) Failure to comply with this section is grounds for the suspension or revocation of an inspector's license or the imposition of an administrative penalty by the commission. |
Source Note: The provisions of this §535.223 adopted to be effective January 1, 1998, 22 TexReg 10657; amended to be effective July 8, 1998, 23 TexReg 6954; amended to be effective January 1, 1999, 23 TexReg 11654; amended to be effective January 1, 2001, 25 TexReg 11653; amended to be effective May 11, 2004, 29 TexReg 4487 |