The Home Inspector's Responsibility
The home inspector is not an expert but a generalist. The home inspector can inspect a home and report upon the home’s condition as it was at the time of the inspection. That is the main responsibility of the home inspector.
A home inspection does not include predictions of future events, house warranties, or guarantees that nothing will ever go wrong. Future events (such as roof leaks, water intrusion, plumbing leaks, and heating failures) are not within the scope of a home inspection and are not the responsibility of the home inspector. Who’s responsible? The homeowner.
The most important thing for a homeowner to understand is that things will break. As time goes on, parts of the house will wear out, break down, deteriorate, leak, or simply stop working.