Home Inspection Licensing
The home inspection licensinglaw finally took effect July 1. It will not be enforced until March of 2011. The department of business and professional regulation are accepting applications and issuing licenses, even though they have not written the administrative portion of the bill yet. The standards of practice have not yet been published, so any inspectortouting his license is still using whatever standards they were originally reporting to. When the standards are published, all inspectors will need to report by those standards. We have a good idea of what they will be, and I can assure you that they will be more specific and stringent that what most inspectors now use. It has always been my contention that you should use an ASHI, NAHI, or FABI certified inspector, as they have the toughest standards in the industry.
When you are looking for an inspector, please use careful due diligence in qualifying them. At this point, just because someone says they have a license does not put them above any other inspector. There are still no enforcement of these laws taking place, and they will not take place until March of 2011.
Posted by Bill Siegel Florida Home Inspection Team Inc.
Florida Home Inspector Legislation
It has come to our attention that the stakeholder meeting that were held throughout Florida may have produced some very interesting results. It seems that certain associations went into these meeting with their own agendas. This probably did more harm than good. These were supposed to be professional meetings, with the purpose to help the state decide who should be grandfathered and what test should be adopted. Had all the home inspectors kept to this line of thinking our voice would have been much stronger. I was at the meeting in Margate, and I have to tell you, it was a joke. Home inspectors were showing up in tee shirts, shorts, flip flops, and baseball caps. Rather than keep to the topics at hand, some inspectors started to beat their chests as to how good their particular association is. This is exactly what the delegates from our government did not want to hear. I am proud to say the FABI members who were there were all dressed in suits and kept to the topics at hand. Now we will have to wait for the outcome. Hopefully we will know something next month.
Posted by Bill Siegel Florida Home Inspection Team Inc
Licensing Stakeholder Meetings
Well, the four stakeholder meetings are over. I was able to attend the one in Margate, Florida. The big issue was grandfathering. The state has made it clear that their aim is not to put us out of business. They were taking suggestions on who should be considered for the grandfathering. Many people spoke and most of them had their own agenda. This is what I took away:
The contractors think only they should be grandfathered.
There was discussion as to grandfathering inspectors who have a certain amount of years experience or completed inspections, although specific numbers were not decided upon.
Very importantly, it was brought upt that there is some wording in the bill that contractors / repair trades would be able to work on a home once it has closed. This goes against all of the code of ethics of all of the home inspector trade associations, as now inspectors would have a financial interest in the home.
FABI was represented as an educational organization and has the strictest entrance requirements.
The room was filled with INACHI members, who acted like this was more of a pep rally for them than stakeholder meeting. They think that because a member has to take a test before they can become a member that every member of their organization should be grandfathered. What they failed to mention is that both FABI, ASHI, and NAHI also have entrance examinations, and that their test can be taken on line with no proctoring involved. Anyone can open up their exam, open another browser and look up the answers and pass the test. What is scary is that their membership has doubled in the last year and they now have over 1000 inspectors in the state of Florida. How many of these inspectors are really qualified?
Now it is up to the DBPR to shape this bill. We will have to wait to see what happens.
Posted by Bill Siegel Florida Home Inspection Team Inc
Licensing
Home inspection licensing is now a reality in the state of Florida. Stakeholder meeting are going to be held within the next thirty days for everyone to express their opinions. This is the begining of what will shape the administrative portion of the bill. It is time for all home inspectors to pull together for the good of our industry. We need to put on a professional attitude and appear responsible at these meeting. Personal agendas will only tear the industry apart. Home inspectors will not be the only ones at these meetng. The builders association and realtors association will also be represented. They have their own ideas for what they want to see in the bill. Both of those groups are very powerful and may have influence on this bill. For now, the home inspectors will have to wait and see how this is going to develop. More to come at a later date.
Posted by Bill Siegel Florida Home Inspection Team Inc.