Material defect
A condition that significantly affects the value, desirability, habitability or safety of a property — the reporting threshold used by many standards and state statutes.
What is Material defect?
What is Material defect?
Where the term is defined in statute or a Standard of Practice, it sets what the inspector is obliged to report. It generally excludes cosmetic issues and routine maintenance, and it does not require the inspector to determine cause or cost. The judgement in practice is proportionality: a hairline stucco crack and a stair rail that will not hold weight both get reported, but they should not read with the same urgency. Consistent severity language across a report — and across an inspector's whole body of work — is what makes that judgement legible to clients and defensible later.