Dear Sirs!
Please , give me the suggestions and advises on the following court event . I have submitted a claim in a small claim court against the home inspector who was at my home twice from January to Aprill 2011 and never pointed or reported the Kitec heating system in my house which is now in a violation of a Canadian building code and I had the buyers before I knew that and the buyers gave me an offer last month but terminated and stepped away because of Kitec has been reported in theirs home inspection report .
Now to replace all pipes and fittings , dry wall and painting will come up to 20,000 Ca$ .
His lawyer has contacted me through the registered mail to call her in order to change the court date and wanted to talk with me.
Do I have a right not to respond on this letter and to come to the court as scheduled ?
Also in terms of legislation . Is it fair when I come to the court without a lawyer and the home inspector will be represented by his lawyer , so that means I will fight on court against his lawyer but not him ?
Does his lawyer have a legal right to contact me and to involve in any conversations ?
Thank you in advance ,
Denis A. N.S. Canada

As I understand what you are saying, you have sued the building inspector because he failed to identify a building code violation which violation caused a potential buyer to decide not to buy.

Canadian laws might be different than laws which generally prevail in the U.S. so what I am about to tell you may possibly be different in your situation (but I doubt it).

Is the home inspector who you are suing an official governmental inspector? If so, there may be some sort of governmental immunity which shields him from liability.

Yes, his lawyer can contact you and no, you do not have to respond if you don't want to. I suggest, however, that you do respond. It will not hurt to hear what he has to say.

Is it fair that the defendant is represented by a lawyer and you are not? Yes, in my opinion, it fair. You have the right to hire your own lawyer also, if you want. But, more to the point, is it legal for the defendant to be respresent by a lawyer in small claims court? In most places yes; although there are some few jurisdictions which don't allow it. This site suggests that Nova Scotia is not one of those places.

Thank you very much , Sir for your response . No, he is not an official governmental home inspector , he belongs to a Canadian home inspectors association and he is a president of provincial association!!
The Kitec failures became an issue a long time before the inspection he did and he says that at the time of inspection he was unfamiliar with this issue , simply he said , he didn't know about it . But I have gathered a lot of evidences , written witnesses that the home inspection industry was aware of the Kitec damages in 2010 , it was confirmed by the president of the same national association , as well as the one member wrote to me that they were discussing this issue within the association back in summer , fall 2010 .
In addition to that I called the home inspector from another home inspectors association which is Canadian/American and he confirmed that they were all aware of it back in 2010 .
So I don't know if I will call his lawyer and probably she will be recording the conversation... They want to reschedule the court date , but I can't because I'm moving to another province a week after the court . I'm experiencing the financial troubles because I can't sell my current house but I signed the agreement of purchased on another one back in December 2012.
To replace the system in my house I did the quote which showed up to 20,000 Ca$ .
So , what do you think , what else I can provide in order not to fail on court?
Thank you
Denis

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Originally Posted by Stillwater Lake

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So , what do you think , what else I can provide in order not to fail on court?
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I think that the biggest issue may be whether you were damaged by the inspector's failure to catch the problem.

If I am understanding you correctly, there was a problem with the heating system, the industry knew about it, but you did not. What did you hire this inspector for, were you trying to sell your house back then? Then you found a buyer who required another inspection which revealed the problem?

If you are moving shortly after the court hearing, and have a contract to purchase another house in the province to which you are moving, it may be difficult to prove damages until they in fact occur. That is, if your agreement to buy another house falls through, for instance, and you have to make other arrangements, you don't know what these arrangements will cost until they happen. So this indeed might be a reason to postpone the hearing, trial, or whatever "court date" it is.