Buyers Protection Group (BPG)

BPG Inspections Failed to Honor Their Guarantee or Take Accountability Summary: In my experience, BPG Inspections failed to uphold their guarantee, and I encountered poor follow-up and vague, shifting justifications for denying my claim. Details: I hired BPG Inspections in Pensacola, FL, to inspect a home I purchased in April. The inspection occurred in March, and I moved in during May. Within a few days of moving in – well within the 90-day warranty period – I discovered two issues that the inspection report had explicitly marked as functional: 1. The garbage disposal unit did not work (it made a soft noise but did not function). 2. The HVAC system failed to deliver air to the kitchen and adjacent bedroom, though the inspection report had indicated the air handling was operational and in good condition. I promptly emailed BPG about these problems, and while the inspector initially responded, I was then passed to their claims department. After repeated follow-ups, I finally received a call on June 23rd – nearly a month after reporting the issue – only to be told that neither issue was covered under their warranty. I raised the following concerns: 1. For the HVAC, the inspector had confirmed it was functional in an email, contradicting the claims department's later justification that it could not be tested. If no air reaches two rooms, it should have been evident during either heating or cooling tests – this was missed. 2. For the garbage disposal, I was told it was a "kitchen appliance" and therefore not covered, despite it being a fixture included in inspections. When I asked where the warranty excluded it, I received inconsistent explanations. At no point did the company offer to re-inspect or further investigate these issues. I expected more accountability from a professional inspection service – especially one offering a guarantee.

Deceptive on price and price gouging. Extremely poor customer service. Inspection cost was not disclosed up front, on site we were told ‘I don’t handle that aspect’. Ultimately charged almost 1,000 for an inspection. I called 3 times to inquire about it, but no manager would return my call. Months later they decided it was easier to push to collection agency than simply call me to reach an agreement. Not a company that respects or cares about customers.

When I finally spoke with the risk management person at BPG, I was told their offer to us was normal in this situation. I'm shocked to know this is a normal situation. Our inspection, which we unfortunately relied on, was incompetent. The Atlanta Area Manager came out to do a follow up inspection, and he acknowledged all the problems with the first inspection. He said that it never should have happened. He wrote a second report which detailed the missed items from the first inspection. It took six weeks of me following up, and then I was able to speak with the Risk Management person, Brian Eisenman. The incompetent inspection included missed items in major systems, including electrical, plumbing, structure (roof, floor, framing) and HVAC. For example, if we need to cut off electricity to the house, we cannot because there is no main breaker, even though the report says that it was located near the meter on the outside of the house by the meter. The inspector said that he saw something and that it was there, and it doesn't even exist. We are left in a dangerous and hazardous situation, with an estimated repair bill of $100-120k. The response from BPG was for us to take $3500 and shove off. Also, the risk manager blamed me for not getting follow up inspections on items not listed in the report as problems. The incompetent inspection, which we did rely on in this home buying process, left us without the opportunity to seek follow up inspections for items not listed, to ask the sellers to repair items, or to simply walk away because we would have had all the information. We were not protected in this buying experience.

They broke a tile in the bathroom and left it and insulation all over house. Said many non issues were issues due to incompetence, like not knowing how to operate a gas fireplace, or what a drain stopper looks like (even though it is in their photo)

I will start by saying we don't have any rating which is less than one star as they are not even eligible for one start rating. Attn : Who ever wants to get the inspection done from BPG don't fall for the 90 day warranty. They never stand by there words, i have done my inspection recently the report says its tested for dryer hookup when i moved in and did my first laundry boom there was a issue with dryer chord or panel and did not work. When contacted them they say all story but never address the issue or don't stand by their work. All you get hear is : I'm sorry, but we will not be able to offer assistance with the cost of this repair. what's the fun of 90 days warranty,,,,,,,,,,Request everyone to do the research before selecting BPG inspection. This incident happened in Minnesota.

Not well

In a nutshell, my daughter bought a two-story home.  The house had a porch overhang that was also covered with the "roofing" materials.
Shortly after purchasing the home, my daughter had direct TV out who told her that the roof had a big hole in it from where someone had previously installed a dish and the only way to fix the hole someone had cut out was to replace the WHOLE ROOF. 
She went back to the inspectors and was told that the inspector (who asked to become her Facebook friend while on the "job" -- real professional), admitted that he did NOT get on the actual roof of the house...he didn't have a two-story ladder so he just eyeballed it and the overhang and felt it was fine.
She took them to small claims and lost.  They're only liable for the cost of the inspection, which is clearly stated in the contract, which they did offer to refund at some point.  That's such a crock when they're supposed to be protecting buyers from such things as this poor broke kid had to deal with.  I can't imagine they'd do such shoddy work in a neighborhood like Chesterfield or Clayton.  Who doesn't inspect the entire TOP of a roof??
We're in the process of buying a new home and this is the LAST company I would consider using.  Awful, awful, awful....

My inspector was Ron Cress.  10 years ago when I bought my first house he was my home inspector (when he was with Land America) and I was so impressed with his knowledge, his thoroughness, and his professionalism that when I was buying a new house I hunted him down on the internet and found him working for Buyers Protection Group.  With my first house he saved me a lot of headache by finding over 160 items the builder of house did wrong, including 8 major building code violations.  Without Ron's inspection I would have had an uneven roof, and bannisters that weren't safe for my kids.  I owe him a lot, so I hired him a second time.  He did not disappoint.  Since this house was an existing house his focus was no longer on code, but safety and just general defects.  He found cases of wood rot, plumbing issues, electrical issues where the GFI outlets weren't working correctly, and improper drainage on the roof.  At the same time he was very re-assuring that the house was a very good house, and if these were our only problems then we were in great shape.

I cannot attest to any of the other inspectors at this company, but I highly recommend Ron. 

Tyler rushed through our inspection. He told us he had 3 home inspections that day.   Tyler missed several big items that he should have caught. He would not explain things to us when he was there.  He just wanted our money and wanted to get out.  When I went to try to resolve our issues with BPG they were rude and refuse to fix the problem.  I would never use Tyler Mahely or BPG.  He clearly just wants the sale to close and will give a "soft" inspection report so the buyers go through with the purchase and the agent gets his commission.  Clearly our real estate agent arranged for the inspection.  When I asked BPG the nature of the relationship between Mr. Mahley and our real estate agent they refused to answer my question.

I will not use this firm in future.  The biggest issue I had was the delay in receiving the radon report in the time required by my home purchase contract (and as promised by this firm).  The delay was blamed on existing homeowner (having windows open).  However, BPG still had time to meet deadline, and were not responsive in returning calls or explanation of delay.  The final report contained a single overall radon measurement - vs competition reports that include hour by hour measurements that are rolled up to overall score. The home inspection report was satisfactory although much of the material was generic home maintenance fluff (in my opinion).  The inspector was competent, courteous, and did well in answering questions.  Customer service and radon inspection drove my lack of satisfaction not the home inspector.

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A BPG home warranty came with our house when we bought it last June. Discovered we had a bad leak in our roof during torrential downpours. Called BPG and filed a claim in January, and they sent out their preferred roofer to fix the leak. They charge a flat $75 trade fee when they send someone out to fix something; except with us, they charged us 2 trade fees, for the same roofer and the same visit, because he had to remove some siding in order to install some roof flashing to fix the leak. So they counted that as 2 trades! Total bull. Even worse, the leak ended up not being fixed AT ALL. So we filed another claim, paid ANOTHER $75 trade fee, and guess what. The leak is STILL not fixed. And because we can only tell if the roof leaks or not during extremely heavy rain, this has been a 6 month ordeal and $225 down the drain. And you guessed it; the most recent leak happened 3 days after our home warranty expired. Today I called BPG for help, mentioned that our warranty was up, and mysteriously got hung up on! Seriously, BPG is a total scam. Avoid!

Adam Frers of Buyers Protection Group did an excellent job with an inspection of a (very old) house that I am under contract to purchase. He worked extremely efficiently to complete a very thorough inspection. At the end of the process, he showed me pictures he had taken of all of the defects and explained to me in-person the items of concern. I've seen the reports produced by other home inspection companies, and they pale in comparison to the level of detail that was found in the report that Adam produced. He sent over a completed report later in the afternoon on the same day he inspected the house. Couldn't have asked for a better experience.

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Patrick Walsh did a great job on a pre-inspection for me on a home that I
will be listing in Durham, NC.  He was very thorough and took his time
to investigate all components of the home.  I was very impressed with his scope of knowledge and ability to uncover potential issues.  Not only that, he was very helpful in explaining everything to the homeowners so that they could resolve the issues prior to putting their home on the market.  I would highly recommend Patrick Walsh to any home buyers and sellers In the Triangle Area of NC.

I didn't like the plumber that they used, but it turned out okay after a while. The home warranty was through our real estate agent. It took a long time.

This inspector, Brian L. from BPG, was recommended by my real estate agent and I made the mistake of not checking reviews on BPG prior to allowing BPG to inspect. The day of the inspection, my agent and I walked through with the inspector and he pointed out all of his "key findings". I took copious notes and the inspector emailed the report. My walk through nor the report revealed that the ceiling fan and light in the living room were inoperable. After I moved in, I had several friends look at the fan/light but no one could figure out the problem. I thought that checking a ceiling/fan light to see if it works was such a basic element that should have been checked and if it wasn't working should have been noted in the report! I contacted BPG and they said ceiling fans are not checked during inspections but a "range" of lights are checked and, of course, this generic and broad language that the inspector actually checked a "range" of lights was what the inspector did-or so they say. As far as I am concerned, a ceiling fan and light are significant elements an inspector should check and report back if they are not working! BPG messed up and that's why I gave them a F in the quality of the inspection.

We used BPG for a home inspection on a house we are under contract to buy in Tempe, AZ. The inspection was performed on 9/11/14, within our 10-day inspection period. We were presented with the findings that day, and were e-mailed the report the next day. We were happy because there were no major issues found.
We moved forward with the purchase of the house and hired a contractor, as there are some renovations we plan to do before we move in. On 10/9/14, our contractor was in the attic for the purpose of planning changes to the duct work, and found a broken valley rafter, which he took pictures of. He asked us if this had been included in the inspection report, and we said no.
I got in touch with our real estate agent, who had recommended BPG for our home inspection, and also sent the pictures to our inspector. Our inspector did not reply to my e-mail, but acknowledged to our real estate agent that the break in the valley rafter was present in the pictures he had taken the day of the inspection, but that he had not noticed the break and had therefore not included it in the report. On 10/13/14, we received an updated report that included the broken rafter (plus the picture our inspector had taken of it the day of the inspection), making note that it had not been included in the original report. Our inspector told our real estate agent that BPG has insurance to cover missed structural issues, seeing as we were now well outside of our 10-day inspection period. 
I was given a 1-800 number to call to make a claim. The person I spoke to took my information and told me someone from the claims department would call me back. I was called back by a number in Missouri 30 minutes later, and this woman was immediately defensive, condescending, and unprofessional. She kept repeating that our inspector had updated the report, and seemed shocked that I wasn't satisfied that that was all that had been done. She even tried to pit my husband and I against each other by saying that our inspector "...did mention something to your husband that day about the valley rafter, and it was your husband who was actually there..." which is completely false, since I was the one who was present for the entirety of the inspection, my husband came at the end for the inspection presentation, and nothing was "mentioned" to my husband, nor to me. I questioned why a structural issue would have only been "mentioned" and not included in the report, and she said that our inspector didn't think it was worth putting it in the report, as it would only cost about $100-200 to fix (we have since been in touch with our contractor and he has given us an estimate of $300-$700 to fix the broken valley rafter). This contradicts what our inspector told our real estate agent. She also told me that if we think this is a big deal, then we can just "walk away" from the home.
I was shocked by this phone call, as our BPG inspector made a major mistake, but I was somehow being made to believe that we were in the wrong for forgetting that  our inspector had "mentioned" a broken rafter, even though he didn't, and I don't believe he is even trying to claim that he did.
If the seller of the home agrees to update the Disclose of Property Condition, we can technically still walk away from the home and have our escrow returned to us (none of this was explained by the BPG representative on the phone), but if we had wanted to walk away, that would have been a lot easier within the 10-day inspection period, before we had given a down payment to a contractor, an architectural draftsman, and weren't two weeks away from the sale of our current home.
We realize that mistakes are made. We felt OK about the situation at first, as it seemed that our inspector had owned up to his mistake, and that the wrong was going to be righted. However, the way that this was handled by BPG at a higher level has been appalling, and I will discourage anyone I know from using the company.

They did a good job. Everything was autographed and the quote was given. I bought the property and I am happy. I do no think they over-charged me and my bother-in-law thought it was reasonable. I was pleased with the thoroughness. They pointed out every little thing and it gave me time to fix them. I would recommend them to anybody.

Last time I contacted them, They told me my policy was expired, and they did not even bother to contact me before I was expired.  I was told I would not receive a renewal notification because I did not meet the underwriter's guidelines.  I wish I had been told in advance so I could have been looking for another company. 

They also never send out qualified people to do the repairs that I have requested, because the problem just comes right back in a month.  I am still waiting on them to replace a fridge that could not be repaired, as the policy promises.

He was the most through we have ever had. He explained every circuit and piece of equipment to my husband. He left us feeling really good about the purchase we had made. We thought they were awesome.

We recently put an offer on a house that was accepted. BPG provided the home inspection and did a very thorough job. I was in contact with both Rick Bowling and Ron Bearer during the procedure and could not be happier.

Scheduling the appointment via the home office in GA was very easy.







Ron, the Professional Inspector, was at the house prior to my arrival and had already inspected the outside as well as the roof. He took his time to make sure all appliances that were staying in the house were inspected and did an in depth review of the heating and cooling system. Ron took into account the age of the home while conducting the inspection and his overview of what work is needed on the home as well as what was good about the home was very reliable. Ron was very professional and his feedback was greatly appreciated.

We recently purchased a new home and used Buyer's Protection Group based on the recommendation from others. I really couldn't be more disappointed in what occurred with the inspection and afterwards. Even though I have been assured this was not a typical experience, I am inclined never to use BPG again for such a service.
The inspection was off to a rocky start with the inspector spent approximately 45 minutes credentialing himself with me. He went back to his days in the Navy and worked forward. I didn't need all of that background. The sellers were only going to be gone for a little more than two hours, so we needed to start the inspection. He could have summed up his experience and credentials as an inspector in about five minutes.
I had been through the home twice before we made our offer and had it accepted, and I had seen a good many items during my visits. I found that the inspector identified what I would call readily obvious items: wood rot on trim boards and on window trim, a loose outlet cover here or there, etc. It would be like me charging you $500 to give you a report that says you have red hair, two hands, two arms, two legs, fingers, and toes. I really wanted to know if this home was a good home and worth the investment we would be making. We were certainly hoping this would be the LAST home we would ever purchase.
I asked a question about the roof when I pointed the inspector to a rotten rake board by one of the gutters. The inspector told me the roof was too steep for him to get on the roof. While that was true of most of the roof, the section over the front porch was very shallow, and he could have climbed up there and viewed the exterior of three fixed circle to dormer windows. I was concerned with these windows because I had observed significant issues with rot on the sills when touring the home. A good exterior inspection would have identified that the trim on the dormers was also in need of replacement and that one sill nose was detached and allowing water to enter the home. But since the inspector refused to climb any part of the roof, he missed all of these items.
Additionally, had the inspector pulled out a ladder and checked out any of the second floor windows on the side of the home, he would have quickly seen they were not flashed properly nor caulked along the edge between the trim and shingles. I noticed this when I began home repairs after we moved in. During this process, I uncovered several areas where water had gotten behind the tar paper and into sheathing below these windows. I had to remove shingles, replace rotten sheathing, install new tar paper, and reinstall the shingles. I then flashed the windows properly and also caulked between the shingles and the trim. I think any competent inspector would have picked up on this if he would have climbed a ladder.
Inside the home, the inspector missed a number of leaky angle stops (shut off valves) on sinks and toilets. One such valve in the powder room had leaked so much it caused the floor boards to expand and separate beneath the sink. We noticed this when painting the powder room, and I think the inspector should have caught it since the area in question was not covered by a cabinet. There was just a pedestal sink in the area, and you could see the damage when you looked there.
The icing on the cake was when we moved in. The day after two of the three HVAC systems stopped working. It was on what to that point was the hottest day of the year. We called our warranty company, and two days later, an HVAC tech showed up. One system was low on freon, and he charged it to get it working. However, the first floor system was kaput. He said the transfer valve was stuck, and it would require another visit. Several days later, the warranty company called to say they were denying our claim. They said the transfer valve had been installed improperly and was considered a pre-existing condition. As such, they wouldn't cover it. I noted that while we'd had the house inspected, it had been in the 60s the day before the inspection, so the AC could not be operated. The warranty company said any VISUAL inspection of the system would have noted the improperly installed valve. Our inspector obviously missed this as well.
I did speak with someone from BPG about the issues I had. Regarding the AC, all they would say was that it had been too cold to run the systems. I told them I had noted that but that the item in question could have been identified visually, so there was no need to run the system. The person had no comment about that. They said that they do not want to endanger their inspectors, so that's why they don't go on steep roofs. I explained that I had not ASKED the inspector to go on the steep roof, but the shallow roof over the porch was certainly not dangerous at all. I felt that their method of dealing with me was to dismiss my concerns by implying I wanted the inspector to risk his life. In the end, all they promised to do was bring up the items at a company meeting.
Would we have avoided purchasing the home if the inspection had been more comprehensive? Probably not, but we would most certainly have negotiated a larger settlement with the sellers to cover these additional items we have since uncovered.
I certainly don't have experience with all of BPG's inspectors, but I would never use the one assigned to us again. And it's not worth taking a chance on getting another inspector who won't climb a ladder and can't identify an improperly installed HVAC system. So if I were you, I'd pass on BPG and find another, better qualified company. 

They're horrible. They look for reasons not to cover the warranty contract that they have with you and deny anything at the drop of the hat.  Problems that were subsequently solved by independent contractors or through our own "do-it-yourself" fixing are never compensated.  They are rude on the phone, and every one of our customer service interactions (6+) were met with an overall bad attitude on the phone.  If you want a warranty company for your home, do not go with them.