TAMPA, FLA. — After reading Dave Yates' column in the April CONTRACTOR magazine ("Home inspections can lead to legal tangles," pg. 30), I became even more infuriated.

We have a family plumbing business that has been open for 76 years.

Nothing aggravates me more than when I have close friends or customers call me and tell me how a home inspector wrote a report on their plumbing system and now they can't either sell or buy the home they fell in love with.

These "correspondence professionals" (and I use "professional" cautiously) have no idea what they are talking about. Usually, when I go out and inspect the so-called "problem" I find that they were completely wrong and they missed even more important items. Then I have to write letters and reports to the banks, realtors and the homeowner explaining what I found, but again always including a legal disclaimer as to what I found and that it is possible that I missed an item at the time of inspection. We shy away from performing these inspections due to legal complications if something later arises.

I enjoyed Dave's column.

JOSEPH GONZALEZ
VICE PRESIDENT HENRY GONZALEZ PLUMBING CO.