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When city inspectors look at a job, whether it¡¯s plumbing,
electrical, mechanical or construction, homeowners are counting on them for
safety.
But what happens when an inspector doesn¡¯t do the job properly?
A faulty Fort Worth city inspection played a big role in a dispute between a homeowner and an air conditioning company. They sued each other, and the suits went to trial last month. The story about the botched job by inspector Carney Eldridge was revealed in testimony.
In 2006, he told Doris Middleton, the homeowner, that it was too hot to go into her attic and look at the two new units installed by Hobson Air (also doing business as Comfort Experts) of Weatherford.
Tommy Poindexter, who was chief mechanical inspector for Fort Worth from 2002 to 2005, testified that Eldridge had mistakenly approved the installation and given Middleton an approval tag even though the work was substandard. He testified that Eldridge¡¯s inspection was negligent and improper.
Poindexter, an unpaid consultant for Middleton in her battle against Hobson, testified that after he examined the units that had been approved, he contacted city officials in the department where he used to work and told them about the many safety violations that were missed.
After his warning, testimony showed, several city inspectors visited Middleton¡¯s house and reinspected and failed the installation job. Hobson reinstalled both units. City inspectors approved the job a month later.
Poindexter testified that he still believes that the installations are faulty. Middleton testified that her bedroom never cools and that she has used a fan for the past three years. But she lost the case when a jury ruled in favor of Hobson.
Here¡¯s what¡¯s unusual: No public record exists of the original inspection. The city¡¯s Web site shows the first visit to Middleton¡¯s home as a failed inspection in August 2006, not Eldridge¡¯s approved inspection, about a month earlier.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Middleton says she filed an open-records request while preparing for the lawsuit. The first inspection wasn¡¯t part of city records.
Yet it happened. Middleton has the approval tag to show for it. (In fact, she has two because of the second recorded approval.)
Poindexter criticized the deletion of the original inspection. "They¡¯re covering something up. What was deleted shows the negligence of an inspector," he said. "The violations that were there were life safety problems. And when he did that, he put somebody¡¯s life in harm¡¯s way."
So what happened? How can records disappear? And what does that say about training of city inspectors?
City inspectors nationwide often conduct inspections in areas where they may not be fully trained.
In Texas, only plumbing inspectors must be licensed for residential inspections. Mechanical, building and electrical inspectors do not require a license and often inspect jobs in fields outside their expertise.
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