Caveat Emptor Under Prudentialism

Abstract

Residential home (that is, housing) inspection has been a growth industry in Canada and the United States since its emergence in the 1970s. Within a legal context where the purchase of used housing is governed by the doctrine of caveat emptor, and a political and economic context characterized by prudentialism, home inspection appears to offer a means by which consumers can discharge their legal and political duty to be prudent. However, in Canada, because home inspection is largely unregulated and market driven, consumers of pre-owned housing are placed at a structural disadvantage relative to home inspectors. This article argues that we should be cautious of embracing private residential home inspection as an adequate consumer protection mechanism or form of risk consulting because there are fundamental and irreconcilable differences between a public service that strives to meet the objective of the public good and home inspection as a private service offered for public consumption that strives to meet the objectives of private interests.