You Saw it, You Own it! Steve Sherwood on Pool Inspections

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Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode with your host, Steve Sherwood from Talking

Pools on Thursdays and Pat Grignon, Vice President over at California Pool Association.

So Pat, thanks again so much for coming on.

We love having you here.

Thanks for having me, Steve.

So I want to talk a little bit about something like I do a lot of decent amount of pool inspections.

And most of the time, if something comes up, I know that I can defer and deflect it in a sense that it's a visual inspection.

So it never covers leak detection and it's never going to go over structural stuff.

And I make them sign off on a piece of paper that says we're not going to really talk about that.

If I do, I say seems like the pool wasn't or was when I was there.

You're never going to say, oh yeah, that had happened or whatever it was.

So I'm writing these insurance reports and everything that falls into the pool is part of the pool and falls into secondary structures,

which is like ADUs and garages and different things like that.

So I did an inspection last week.

The guy had like an equipment pad, but it almost looked like a commercial equipment pad in a sense that like it had a untreated fence like around it.

That was like six feet high or like seven feet high.

It was pretty, you know, like they had made it and it was the same material as the fence and the fence went all the way around the property.

So I'm talking to the homeowner and like I'm taking my pictures and we're going over stuff.

And he's like, what about the defense here?

And there was just silence.

And I'm like, what about the fence, you know, and he's like, would that be covered on their insurance?

And I was like, I have absolutely no fucking idea.

Like, you know what I mean?

Like that is something like, I have no idea if the fence is covered under that.

And then I start inspecting the rest of the fence around the property and pat, it's black.

Man, like it is, it's untreated wood that got heated.

Yeah.

So like it literally looks like burnt firewood, man.

Like this isn't like this may look like this.

This is like this shit is chart.

Okay, like you could be, you could be roasted more smells office though.

So my question to you or my question to you, I know the answer now, but obviously we're going to let the listeners know.

My question to you at the time was like, is this even my business?

You know what I mean?

Like, do I?

Like, where does this stop?

You know, I speak on the surface, the tile, the coping, the expansion joint, the decking immediately around the pool.

But like further away than that, like we're getting that like that's that's not and that's literally not my ballpark.

So do I have an obligation to write this up?

Do I have an obligation to put a price to it?

And like how do I navigate some like as somebody that's been doing inspections for almost 20 years?

Like how do I navigate a new situation that I've seen for the first time?

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Well, I'll tell you, answering the question of what about the fence as, I don't have a fucking clue if it's covered, it's probably the right response for you.

This isn't something that I would recommend getting in the detail, but it's so everyone knows.

So yes, under a standard homeowners policy, there's a coverage, there's other stuff.

But the main ones coverage A, which covers like the bones, the structure of the home.

So separate limit for that, there's B, which is other structures.

So that's going to be anything detached from the main home.

So you got sheds, detached garage, pools fall under that, your fence is fall under that.

And that's normally a smaller limit than the actual rebuild of the home cost.

Yes, a normal homeowners policy would cover a fence with the fire like you saw out there.

But good answer, yeah, because it's, you know, I ultimately, if you're, if if fencing isn't in your business and that's not what you're there to talk about, I would certainly say like, I don't think that that's good.

Just, you know, between me and you, but I'm not going to write anything down about, you know, you need to fix it.

Right. Okay. So you're saying don't even like just say it's not even in my business.

I think in your response, right? Well, how I would address that in the actual report and say, listen, you know, like that's a potential safety hazard, you know, which is, you know, if something can break through or whatever, right?

The fence is weakened and something can break through a dog, a neighbor, a kid, whatever.

And I fall in the pool hurting themselves or hurting themselves around the pool.

I think you got an obligation to at least cite that, but I certainly wouldn't go into, hey, I'll bring out my fence guy or I know a guy in like sub contract, the fence work, right?

If you wanted to say, I know a guy I can refer you to that actually does fences and can look to replace that.

Then that's fine, but you wouldn't want to take the opportunity to try and sub contract that workout, you know, under your company name, and you also, you wouldn't want to go get an estimate from a fence company and put that into the report.

You've got a job on these to identify the hazard. And if it was not nowhere close to a safety hazard to the pool or to anything, then I would not list it in the report.

You know, based on just, you know, the story and kind of the layout, I would say that's a potential safety hazard.

Someone might break through there. It's a weakened fence. You should get a replace. You should get a replaced by, you know, a licensed fencing contractor.

Yeah, I think that and you've met your obligation, right?

What's crazy is like, I didn't feel obligated to talk about the fence at all until the fence came off of the equipment pad and surrounded the equipment pad.

And then I would kind of like, whoa, like this, this definitely does. This is part of the equipment pad. And, you know, part of what you do for a pool inspection.

This goes in some states, they like, they won't give you the CEO unless this is true. And then in other cities, they could give a shit.

And it's the gate or the, you know, the self-closing and self-latching fence slash gate, you know, like if you have a, if you come around the house and there's like a side gate, that gate needs to be on springs.

And like it needs to close away from the pool. You know what I mean? Like basically like, and that's so if somebody, you know, was trying to get in there, like, and they put it was a jar, they pushed it, like it would, it would close into the pool.

You know what I mean? Like it wouldn't swing the other way, right? So sometimes they want you to have the gates a certain way. And then like I said, some cities don't care.

The gate most of the time is connected to the fence. And it gets a little bit hairier because if you, you know, if you're looking at a guy's backyard from his house and the house is at your back, there's three sides.

There's the front side that ends at some point and there's the two sides. All three of those have other residents on all sides of the fence. So he was saying like, because I said to him, I think I had called you like right off the cuff there.

And I like, excused myself and came back and was like, Hey, I'm not going to mention this in the report, like, especially not a dollar amount, but I'm going to say that you should refer because it does look like a safety issue.

And it's, it's really black that you should refer to a fencing company. And I told him, like, I think it would be best if you got, I don't necessarily think you need another report, but if you've got an actual estimate from the fencing company.

You include that when I send you the report, you send that as a package to the insurance company because that they would like to see, okay, this guy doesn't really know about it, but these guys do, and this is how much it's going to cost.

Yeah, leave it up, leave it up to them if they want to have a third party company. And that's what, that's why I'm always weird about when people are like, can you just send me a quote? And I'll just send it to the insurance company. And I'm like, the whole point is that I don't want this work.

And I'm coming in as the expert telling you, like, this is how much it should cost because once the insurance company thinks that sure would put consulting group wants to come on and take this work on and gives you a quote, like nobody can tell me how much to charge.

I can charge what for what other people are charging $20,000 for I can charge $120,000 like nobody's going to say they might be like, oh my god, your prices are outrageous, but no one's going to be like, it's illegal to charge that much money, like you can charge whatever you want.

So that now you guys as the insurer are like, who the fuck is sure would put consulting group? Who are these guys? You know what I mean? Like we want to send out our own guy and find out if it's 80k or if it's 30k.

Like I've went out for an on behalf of insurance companies before and they had like a check like a two like a honey that you do lists for me. They're like, check and see like if they have a salt sell like check and see if the heater doesn't work like check and see like if this happened like specific stuff. And I went out and I'm like, there's no salt sell here.

And like they're asking to replace this, you know, because it was a quote from the look from the from their pool guy and their pool guys like, let's see if we can get a salt sell for them or, you know, something like that.

Right, right.

So this is super awesome information because like again, even for me like I was kind of wowed. I was like, whoa, like I don't usually walk into situations that like I have no idea.

And it was, it was refreshing to learn more about that. It was leaving you with you guys with this his deck also kind of like went into like a little staircase.

And then it opened back up into like a one piece where there was like a basketball court and like five cars could be parked there.

And then it went into a driveway, which is also one poor. It's like one old concrete piece, you know, poor and like black from fire debris because a fire, you know, raining down on it.

So I was comfortable, you know, talking about the deck around the pool because that was also black. But like what is my obligation to go into that like over there on that side of the house like and and what does that fall under?

You know, they have all under the same thing as like a structure, a structure.

Yeah, so it would yes for sure under their home owner.

But again, not my, not my if you can't tie it to that. I mean, look, if there's even a long shot to tie it to the pool.

You know, then then yeah, I think you can make note of I'm not an expert with decking, but you know, this seemed like it could be a potential hazard to recommend.

You know, getting a license contractor, a decking contractor to come, give you a bit on replacing that.

But no, that's helpful. Like in that situation where, you know, the salt cell that doesn't exist, go go check this out.

You know, I think, you know, there's going to cover their basis. And you know, I think that that's a, that's a good example of.

Yeah, I mean, like I'm not like Mr. like pro insurance company guy. I mean, you know, I'm an insurance agent, but I see it both ways, right?

Or I get why they're trying to make sure they're not getting scams. I see them trying to get scam frequently.

So, you know, even even being able to do that and saying, you know, even if you have for this fence, like, hey, go get a, go get a quote from that, from that company.

And then they'll have that. The insurance company might send out their own quote, their own company to quote it as well.

But at least you have a frame of reference that you can negotiate from. And so that's all part of it. So I think that's, that's definitely a good, good advice to get to the, to get to your client.

But yeah, yeah, if I wouldn't go and write anything outside of what could be tied, even even from a long shot to the pool somehow and being a,

yeah, that's what I said. I just like, you know, he said to me about the fence. And I was like, I'm not sure. And then like I said to myself, like, well, what about the deck?

I'm like, you know, my expertise is with our expertise is with the pool. So like, I want to keep that, you know, just contained around the pool.

That's, that's what I did. And I, you know, I think that I followed directions diligently with what you told me, but like, you know, at the end of the day, you know, these people, they want answers.

And like, I want to do a good job for them. But I just didn't know like really if, like, again, if that was, if that was my business. And it makes it real clear that like, it's not.

And sometimes you want to, you know, you want to bend over backwards for these people. And I want to help these people get whatever they deserve to get from the insurance company.

And we're not going to speak on stuff that we don't know about either. So I think that's the lesson for today. So Pat, thanks so much for for coming on every week.

It's a great interlude today. And everybody, if you want to reach out and talk more about some of this stuff and ask us questions, we would love to discuss it on air.

And if you guys are looking for insurance, reach out to California pool association. They will give you a one month free for a general li...

like a annual, general liability insurance. So that's a really great deal. So check them out. And reach out to us at TalkingPools at gmail.com if you need anything.

And everybody have a healthy, healthy and profitable week. Pat, thanks so much. We'll see you next week.

Thanks, Steve.

I just wanted to say thank you for listening today. I'm hoping you enjoyed the episode as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you.

Listen, it's been a couple of wacky, crazy, screwed up years from pandemic to pool again. And I just want you to know that we are all in this together.

If there's anything that we can do for you, send me an email at TalkingPools at gmail.com. Again, that's TalkingPools at gmail.com.

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