What TREC’s Standards of Practice Require, and What They Exclude

Where the standards live, and why that matters

The scope of a Texas home inspection is not set by the inspector, the client, the agent or the trade association. It is set by rule, in 22 TAC Chapter 535, Subchapter R, at §§535.227 through 535.233. §535.227 carries the general provisions — the definitions, the exclusions and the limits — and the sections after it cover the systems in turn: structural, electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing, appliances, and optional systems.

Two consequences follow from the standards being a rule rather than a guideline.

They are enforceable. An inspector who does not meet them is exposed to a TREC complaint. This is why an inspector will sometimes seem to inspect something you did not care about — they are working a required list, not your priorities.

They are a floor, not a ceiling. Nothing in the Standards stops an inspector from doing more, and the better ones routinely do. But the floor is what you are guaranteed. When people say an inspection “missed” something, the honest answer is very often that the item was outside the required scope and nobody told the buyer that in advance. Knowing the boundary before the inspection is worth more than arguing about it afterwards.

The sentence that governs everything else

Everything in this guide follows from one definition in §535.227. A real estate inspection is:

“a limited visual survey and basic performance evaluation of the systems and components of a building using normal controls”

and it

“is not intended to be a comprehensive investigation or exploratory probe to determine the cause or effect of deficiencies.”

Read those two clauses slowly, because between them they answer most of the complaints buyers have about inspections.

Limited. Not exhaustive. Visual. Not invasive — the inspector does not open walls, lift flooring or dismantle equipment. Basic performance evaluation. The inspector runs the system and reports how it behaved, which is a different exercise from diagnosis. Using normal controls. The thermostat, the light switch, the faucet — the controls a homeowner would use, at typical settings.

And then the second clause, which is the one that gets forgotten: the inspection is not there to determine cause. An inspector reports that a wall is cracked and that a door binds. Determining why the slab moved is engineering, and engineering is a licensed profession with its own scope. The report tells you what is happening. It is not obliged to tell you why, and when it does venture a cause it should be labelled as an opinion rather than a finding.

Three defined terms that do the real limiting

The exclusion lists get all the attention, but the definitions in §535.227 constrain the inspection more than the lists do, because they apply everywhere at once. Three matter.

Readily accessible

In substance, the rule limits the inspection to what can be reached, entered or viewed without difficulty, without moving obstructions, and without dismantling anything. That single phrase removes an enormous amount of a typical house. The wall cavity behind the sheetrock. The slab under the flooring. The section of attic behind the stored boxes. The furnace heat exchanger inside its cabinet. The pipe under the slab. All of it is real, all of it can fail, and none of it is readily accessible.

It also means the condition of the house on the day changes the scope. A garage packed to the ceiling, a locked gate, a full attic, snow or standing water on a roof — each of these shrinks what is readily accessible, and each should show up on the report as a not-inspected item with a reason. If you want more of the house inspected, clear it before the inspector arrives. That is a free improvement in coverage and almost nobody does it.

Inspect

The rule defines the verb, which most people never consider. To inspect, in substance, is to operate a system in its normal range using ordinary controls at typical settings, and to visually examine accessible systems and components. Operating is not testing. Running an air conditioner and observing its behaviour is inspecting it; measuring refrigerant charge is not required and neither is a load calculation. Filling a sink and watching it drain is inspecting the drain; putting a camera down the line is a separate service.

Technically exhaustive

The rule uses this term to mark what an inspection is not: the extensive use of measurements, instruments, testing and calculations to develop scientific or engineering conclusions. An inspection is expressly not technically exhaustive. This is the term that separates a home inspection from an engineering evaluation, a laboratory test, an energy audit or a forensic investigation — and it is why an inspection costs what it costs and takes the time it takes.

What an inspector is not required to inspect

§535.227 lists things outside the required scope. The list includes:

• “items other than those listed within these standards of practice” — the catch-all, and the most important line on the list
• elevators
• “detached buildings, decks, docks, fences, waterfront structures, or related equipment”
• “anything buried, hidden, latent, or concealed”
• sub-surface drainage systems
• automated control systems, security systems, solar panels and smart home components

“Anything buried, hidden, latent, or concealed” is doing most of the work here, and in North Texas it removes several of the things buyers most want to know. The sewer line under the slab is buried. The supply line under the slab is buried. A french drain is a sub-surface drainage system. Post-tension tendons are concealed inside concrete. None of these are inside the required scope, and none of them are being skipped out of laziness — they are physically outside a limited visual survey.

Note also that detached structures are excluded. On a lot with a detached garage, a workshop or a guest house, the scope of the inspection is a question to settle in writing before the day, not an assumption to make.

What an inspector is not required to report, or determine

A separate list covers reporting rather than inspecting. An inspector is not required to report:

• “past repairs that appear to be effective and workmanlike”
• “cosmetic or aesthetic conditions”
• “wear and tear from ordinary use”

The first of those is the one worth dwelling on, because it cuts against the reflex. A repair that looks like it worked and looks like it was done properly does not have to appear in your report. A house with old, effective repairs is a house that was maintained. Some inspectors report them anyway as a courtesy; the rule does not require it, and a report that lists every historical patch is padding the list rather than informing you.

The second and third explain why a scuffed wall, a worn carpet and a twenty-year-old but functioning fixture may not appear. That is not an oversight. Cosmetic condition is something you can assess yourself by standing in the room; you hired an inspector for the things you cannot see.

Separately, an inspector is not required to determine the presence of pests, asbestos, lead paint, mould, or “any other environmental hazard.” Each of those is its own discipline with its own licensing. A termite report in particular is a Texas Department of Agriculture document performed under a separate licence, not part of the TREC inspection at all.

Finally, an inspector cannot be required to:

• “anticipate future events or conditions” — so no remaining-service-life predictions
• “operate shutoff, safety, stop, pressure or pressure-regulating valves” — which is why the water heater relief valve is examined, not opened
• “provide repair cost estimates, recommendations, or re-inspection services”

The exclusions are not evasions

It would be easy to read the lists above as an industry protecting itself. That reading misses what the limits are for.

An inspection is a fixed-duration, non-invasive, non-destructive survey of a house somebody else still owns, performed by one person in a few hours for a fee that is a rounding error against the purchase price. Every one of those constraints is real. The Standards describe the service that can honestly be delivered inside them. A scope that promised more would be a scope that could not be met.

The failure mode is not the exclusions. It is a buyer who never learns what they are, assumes the inspection covered everything, and discovers the gap after closing. Which is why the useful response to this guide is not disappointment — it is a list.

What the floor does not cover, and what covers it

• Under-slab drain lines. Buried, therefore excluded. A sewer camera scope and a static or hydrostatic test are separate services, and on older North Texas houses with cast iron drain lines they are the highest-value additions you can make, because cast iron failure and slab movement drive each other.
• Cause of foundation movement. Reporting performance is inside the scope; determining causation is engineering. Where indicators warrant it, evaluation by a Texas-licensed professional engineer is the correct next step.
• Wood-destroying insects. Separate agency, separate licence, separate form.
• Environmental testing. Mould, asbestos, lead, radon — each a separate specialist.
• Detached structures, pools and spas, irrigation. Optional or excluded; agree the scope in writing beforehand.

One honest note against the grain: not every house needs every add-on. A sewer scope on a 2015 slab house with PVC drain lines is a much lower-yield test than the same scope on a 1965 house with cast iron. Ordering the full menu on every property is how buyers get oversold. Order the ancillary services the house’s age and construction actually justify.

Reading the standards yourself

They are short, they are public, and they are written in plainer language than most regulations. If you are buying a house in Texas, twenty minutes with the general provisions section will change how you read your report.

TREC publishes them in a printable version and in an online browsable form. The general provisions, which contain every definition and exclusion quoted above, are at 22 TAC §535.227.

Two things to do with them. First, before the inspection, decide which of the excluded items matter for the specific house you are buying, and arrange those separately with enough option period left to schedule them. Second, after the inspection, use the standards to interpret the report rather than to argue with it — when an item is marked not inspected, the standards usually explain why it could not be, and the answer is usually the word accessible.

Common questions

Published by Stonebriar Property Inspections. Written by Keith Boggs, TREC #9867 — a licensed Texas professional real estate inspector.