Taylor Morrison Fails To Get Disciplinary Action For Home Inspector That Posts Inspection Videos

Earlier this year, we discussed an example of the Streisand Effect in action when a large home builder, Taylor Morrison, petitioned the Arizona Board of Technical Registration to discipline Cy Porter, a home inspector who has built up a large online following by posting videos of his inspections. He does that to educate Arizona homebuyers to the need for having an inspection done specifically on newly constructed homes, as well as what inspectors need to look for to comply with Arizona code. Part of what was strange about the whole situation is that Porter and Taylor Morrison had had a relatively friendly conversation going for some time about some of the problems Porter was seeing in these homes, only for that conversation to be cut off later and for him to be barred from doing at least one inspection of a Taylor Morrison home.

Now, Taylor Morrison complained to the ABTR that Porter was targeting, harassing, and bullying the company, along with a claim that some of the content of his videos about any flaws in its homes was “falsified.” In addition to seeking to get him to stop posting videos, the company also asked that his license be temporarily suspended. This, of course, generated more news and headlines, leading even more people to be aware of the problems in these homes.

And now that’s going to get another round of coverage as this story appears to be coming to a close. That’s because the ABTR considered Taylor Morrison’s request and has found that the videos don’t contain any false information. As such, they are not suspending Porter’s license, and are merely issuing a “letter of concern” over his videos.

This week, the board held a hearing to discuss the complaint. The investigator assigned to the case stated after interviewing witnesses and homeowners who worked with Porter, and reviewing his posts, there was no evidence to show Porter lied in any of his videos.

Ultimately, the board did not discipline Porter after finding no violation of board statutes or rules.

Instead, the board voted to issue a letter of concern for unprofessional conduct. The letter specifically called out a video Porter posted in March. The board stated he displayed evidence in the video of a gas leak with an audio recording that was not associated with the leak. Porter defended that video and said the video was not showing a home inspection. Rather, it was satirical and made as a joke for his social media followers.

Now, to be clear, the board was not unanimous in its views. At least one did call for discipline, but that was out of concern for “professional behavior” rather than any lies expressed within the videos. And, honestly, the satire video is kind of dumb, too. If you’re going for an educational channel through which to inform the homebuying public around home inspections, doing a comedy bit in the middle of that channel seems like a poor choice.

But the real point in all of this is that Taylor Morrison is once again in the headlines, all because it tried to bully someone out of posting online videos of what appear to be legitimate concerns around the company’s homes. If the company had elected instead to act more human about all of this and, you know, just fix those problems, then its reputation wouldn’t have taken this sort of hit to begin with.