Simple answer is needed for no hot water

Hello,

I think it shall be pretty simple for somebody to answer question below.
I'm homeowner and moved into new house which was inspected prior to move in. It was indicated that there is no issues with plumbing.
When we moved we found that no hot water was produced, I went upstairs and light would not stay on in any of the units for more then 5 mins (it'll die out on it's own). I called plumber he told me that both gas control valved needed to be replaced, which he did and it did in fact fixed the issue.
Inspector made a statement below which I want to know your professional opinion on. Does below is actually true if gas control valves were not working properly and the rest of system worked fine (there were no leaks in system, if I opened "hot water" tap then water would flow but just would not be hot)

During the time of our inspection, all fixtures were
producing hot water. One of the important parts of our inspection is to
make sure that hot and cold water spouts are not reversed as a safety
measure. To do this there had to be hot water.

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Thanks,
Greg

Water still can come out of the hot side if the WH isn't working, it just won't be hot! It's strange that (it sounds like you have more than one WH) they all stopped working at the same time.

jadnashua said:

Water still can come out of the hot side if the WH isn't working, it just won't be hot! It's strange that (it sounds like you have more than one WH) they all stopped working at the same time.

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Yes, and that's why I sued inspector for negligent work since it's unlikely both of then went out at the same time between inspection and day of move in, most likely he did not check if hot water produced at all and house was unoccupied both before and after inspection.
So what you are saying is that their statement is wrong, hot water does not need to be produced to test if spouts are not reveresed, right?

If the WH was working at some point, with no one taking showers the water in the tank would stay hot for a week

Those must be expensive tanks if you you're suing the home inspector.

I take it you're located in the US?

Gregory Suvalian said:

...I sued inspector for negligent work since it's unlikely both of then went out at the same time between inspection and day of move in, most likely he did not check if hot water produced at all and house was unoccupied both before and after inspection.

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As true as they might seem, I would guess your speculations of "unlikely" and "likely" will have to be proven before any judge is very likely to find the inspector actually negligent.

Did you get any kind of repair insurance along with your purchase? The only "inspection" my wife and I ever got for a home we had purchased was a drive-by to be sure it was actually there, and we later used that insurance to have a defective breaker panel replaced and even upgraded.

leejosepho said:

As true as they might seem, I would guess your speculations of "unlikely" and "likely" will have to be proven before any judge is very likely to find the inspector actually negligent.

Did you get any kind of repair insurance along with your purchase? The only "inspection" my wife and I ever got for a home we had purchased was a drive-by to be sure it was actually there, and we later used that insurance to have a defective breaker panel replaced and even upgraded.

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Well if average longevity of water heater is 10 years, I would assume probability of it's failing within 2 month between inspection and move in is 2 month/120 month is 1.6%, both of them failing at the same time is 1.6%*1.6% = 0.026% which is same chances as winning jackpot
Replacing gas valve costed $1200 and this was in addition to a bunch of other things which failed during movein so small claims court is perfect avenue to recoup the costs.