FL Home inspector delays inspection report 5+ days

[Heather Hall]

Hello folks, we are in the process of purchasing our first STR in FL. We have previously only purchased LTRs in TX, CA, and CO. We live several states away and have relied on a local/investor-friendly realtor to hire a home inspector for us. Time was of the essence, as we are buying a property that is already a furnished, fully-booked STR, and the seller stated we could only have access to the unit on March 30 (when no guests would be there) to conduct an inspection. Our purchase contract stated our inspection period ended on April 4/ tomorrow; meaning, Monday, April 4 is our final opportunity to cancel the sale and keep our earnest money, if we are unhappy with the inspection results. HOWEVER, we have still not received any inspection report and learned from our realtor's office today that they could not reach the inspector all weekend. So, we asked for an extension of the inspection period until Friday, April 8, BUT . . . questions abound:

1). Is the home inspector in violation of any FL laws, code of ethics, etc. by delaying our report this long?  What options/recourse do we have?

2). Would you rather hire a different inspector at this point?  We learned today the realtor's office had never used this inspector previously but the realtor's office hired him based on online reviews.

3) We never received any invoice or estimate of cost for the home inspection prior to the realtor hiring the inspector and today asked our realtor for documentation of any agreement, emails, etc. which would show the realtor did clearly give the inspector inspection deadlines, etc. but so far we have nothing . . . meaning we do not know what our charges will be, etc.  What would you do?  Ask for discounted service from the inspector?

4) To complicate things further, this inspector also did a mold inspection for us and we are waiting for the lab results to come back but that might not be until as early as Tuesday and we learned he did find mold in the vents. (To clarify, we have NOT received any inspection results yet, not even the basic home inspection which covers HVAC, appliances, etc.)

Any other ideas/thoughts/ suggestions?

Thank you.

[Greg H.]

The seller has no obligation to extend the inspection period as this was a failure of your inspector. I will say I am surprised your agent handled this as being a broker myself I give a list of inspectors to the buyer in order to reduce my liability. 
These situations always make me cringe as it appears you are buying sight unseen in an area you are not familiar with. Spending $1000 for a quick trip on a $100s and 100s of thousands investment never seems like a bad idea