A-1 HOME INSPECTION

On Wednesday January 23, 2013 Joe Mattingly of A-1 Home Inspections was contracted by potential buyers to perform a home inspection on our home. Upon arriving at our home, Mr. Mattingly advised my husband that a radon detection monitor would be placed in the basement for two days to determine if radon was present in the house. Mr. Mattingly stated that the test would be complete on Friday. My husband informed Mr. Mattingly that we would be home after 5pm and he could come at that time to pick up the equipment. My husband asked if we would be contacted via the realtor to coordinate the retrieval of the equipment. Mr. Mattingly replied ?yes?. We were never contacted Friday by our realtor, Mr. Mattingly or the buyer?s realtor. On Saturday my husband and I were away from home when at 12:09pm our realtor texted my husband to inform us that ?Apparently the inspector is close by and wants to grab the radon kit. Are you home?? My husband texted his reply ?We are out and should be home within 20-30 min? Our agents reply was ?Check your msg?. We then listened to her message and she said that Mr. Mattingly had told her that he could tell there was no one home so he just let himself in and retrieved his radon detection machine from our basement by utilizing his personal supra lock remote. We did not know Mr. Mattingly had his ?own? remote. We were not aware that anyone could enter our home without the realtor authorizing access via the supra lock. We find it very unsettling that he would feel compelled to let himself into our home without permission from us or our realtor. I can not begin to tell you how upset and violated we felt upon hearing that a home inspector that we had no business relationship with trespassed in our home. We feel Mr. Mattingly abused his power by accessing the supra lock on our door without permission. The fact that he accepted no admission of wrongdoing as well as the defiance exhibited by informing our realtor that we could contact him if we had a problem with him entering our home. We feel his actions were completely unethical as well as unprofessional and reflect poorly on the Kentucky Association of Home Inspectors. We both work odd shifts and could have been very well sleeping at the time he trespassed in our home. What would have happened if I was in the home alone sleeping and Mr. Mattingly just let himself in? I could tell you with 100% certainty that I would have perceived this uninvited entry as a potential home invasion and proceeded to called 911 as well as taking actions to defend my home against an intruder that was there to endanger my life and property. How would I have known who Mr. Mattingly was? I was not present when he originally came to our house and would have believed he was an intruder. Also we have 3 pets that could have gotten out. We don?t let our pets outside because of the busy road we live on. I would have been very upset to come home and find our pets killed on that busy road because of Mr. Mattingly?s poor choice to trespass in our home. The intentions of our complaint are that Mr. Mattingly be held accountable for his poor choice to trespass in our home. It is still unknown to us why he didn?t just wait until we were home to retrieve his machine. Why did he have to get it at that very moment? We feel that it would have been reasonable for him to wait 20-30 minutes for us to return home or come back on another day after he had received verbal or written permission to enter our residence. He was not working with our agent therefore he should have been respectful to our time schedule not his own. I honestly don?t understand how he would not see this as an invasion of our privacy. We will definitely never use a supra lock on our door again and we will make sure that all other home inspectors that enter our home are verified prior to their performance of a home inspection because of this incident. Unfortunately, the inappropriate actions of inspectors like Mr. Mattingly tarnish the reputation of professional Home Inspectors.