Sen. Susan Collins, R-Me., has called on Sec. Andrew Cuomo to withdraw television Department of Housing and Urban Development -sponsored advertisement that blur the differences between appraisals and home inspections.

Sen. Collins, who heads the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, also has asked the HUD secretary for an accounting of the government funds spent developing, producing and airing the commercials she and others believe border on being "deceptive."

In a letter to Cuomo, the Maine Republican said the spots "may cause home buyers to believe that a home inspection is not necessary to protect themselves from purchasing a home with serious flaws that could wind up costing thousands of dollars to repair."

The ads, which have been challenged by many appraisers and home inspectors alike, imply that a routine appraisal will disclose the same structural defects that would be discovered by a home inspection. But in fact, they are not the same things.

An appraisal is a tool used by the lender to assess the value of the property, which stands as collateral for a mortgage. If the borrower should default on the loan, the lender wants to be certain the house is worth at least what was lent.

On the other hand, a home inspection is a complete examination of the house. Whereas an appraiser might poke around the house for an hour or so, an inspector spends several hours taking an in-depth look, checking all the mechanical parts, roof, basement and everything in between.

In HUD's defense, HUD documents advise borrowers to have the house they are buying gone over thoroughly by an independent inspector. But the television spots suggest that the appraisal and home inspection are one in the same.

In one ad, for example, the announcer says: "With HUD's FHA Home Buyer Protection Plan, you get the right loan, a fair price and a thorough inspection. If any problems are found, you'll know about them before you close."

As far as Sen. Collins is concerned, such a statement "implies that the home buyer can blindly trust HUD to protect his or her interest, and that the appraisal process will disclose any and all problems with the house."

What's particularly worrisome, she added, is that HUD and the FHA deal mostly with uninitiated rookie home buyers with no previous experience and who might not know that that's not the case.

Sen. Collins also told Sec. Cuomo that she is "deeply troubled" that the misleading ads are running extensively on national television. "HUD should not be spending huge sums of public money to confuse American home buyers," she said.