How to handle an unhappy client

The most important thing to do is to be patient and helpful

Offer to help find a Professional Engineer to assess the situation

Ideally, it is better for everyone if you stand back and observe. who  

Meet with the buyer and the engineer

Be wary of a buyer who has solicited bids from repair contractors, but do not be intimidated

The following is a true story. Rather than bore you with the details, I will cut right to the chase. A lady demands that I pay for underpinning her house because, she said, she had a stack of reports that say she had to underpin the foundation. She thought she had an open and shut case because she had a stack of paper, reported reports.

I asked to see them. She refused. I asked who made the reports, engineers, home inspectors or repair contractors? She said repair contractors, real experts. I knew right there that she had nothing that would back up her claim that she had to repair the foundation. Repair contractors do not and cannot provide an unbiased, independent assessment of the need for foundation repair. They recommend and propose. They do not and, in my opinion, cannot legally tell people that they have to repair their foundation.

Repair contractors do not and cannot provide an unbiased, independent assessment of the need for foundation repair. They recommend and propose. They do not and, in my opinion, cannot legally tell people that they have to repair their foundation. That would be a clear case of practicing engineering without a license.

I asked that she show me one, just one, report that said she had to underpin the foundation. She went through several before slamming them down saying she knew it was in there but was too upset to find it.