IHINA News Release

[John McKenna]

Below is a recent news release from the Independent Home Inspectors
of North American (by permission).

The April Photo of the Month has been posted to the web site:
http://www.independentinspectors.org...8-april07.html

PR Update:

On a Google search for "home inspectors" done everyday between 3/18 and 3/28 http://www.independentinspectors.org/ came up at #6, #7 or #8. It has moved up an average of at least 2 positions since last month and is the best ranking for IHINA since its inception.

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Legislation:

A few weeks ago I emailed every MO state representative the following letter (I have since received a dozen personal replies from the legislators thanking me for the helpful information.) If your state or province has any pending home inspection legislation, feel free to use the letter as a template to send to your state / province legislators.

Dear Legislator,

It is my understanding that House Bill, HB 978, pertaining to home inspections / inspectors will be going to committee soon and then on for a hearing. If the ultimate goal of this legislation is to protect consumers in your state, then I believe you should have some information pertinent to one of the issues adversely affecting the home buying consumer. That issue concerns how most home inspectors obtain their client leads or referrals.

Massachusetts to date is the only state that recognizes the inherent or potential conflict of interest when the real estate agent selling a property also recommends the home inspector to the prospective buyer. When the MA home inspector licensing law was passed in 2001, the MA real estate licensing law was amended to prohibit selling agents from directly referring the home inspector. http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/112-87yy.5.htm
That law has been extremely successful in MA. Marginal home inspectors and those who catered more to the referring agent than to their home buying client, are no longer in business.

I would hope before any final consideration is given to House Bill 978, that the information on the Independent Home Inspectors of North America web site http://www.independentinspectors.org/ be reviewed and in particular the legal cases involving agent referred home inspectors.

The best consumer protection for the home buying consumer is to insure that home inspectors work strictly in the best interest of their client, the potential home buyer. Preventing selling real estate agents from being involved in the home inspector selection process is the most effective way of doing this.

If you require any additional information or resource to help you in this matter, please contact me.

Sincerely,
Dennis Robitaille
Director
Independent Home Inspectors of North America (800-640-2253)

(Below is one of the responses)

Dear Dennis:

Thanks for bringing HB978 to my attention. I checked this bill on the House website and I see that it has not been assigned to a committee. At this point in the year, if a bill is not yet out of committee, it is essentially "dead." If it is not assigned to a committee, it goes nowhere. That being said, I believe you made a good case for your point of view on HB978. Home Inspectors need to be independent of realtors.

Sincerely,

Therese Sander, Representative.

District 22

State Capitol, Room 404A

201 West Capitol Avenue

Jefferson City, Missouri 65101-6806

573-751-6566

Liane.Kuhn@house.mo.gov

[James H. Bushart]

Though the bill is still on life support, we are anticipating that the family will permit the plug to be pulled in the very near future.

Upon the official death of this bill, we have many people to thank for their efforts...of which Dennis Robitaille is among those at the very top.

Within days of the bill being read and entered in the House Journal, I contacted Dennis and described our dilemma and within 72 hours he had composed this letter and had it sent to every member of the Missouri House of Representatives.

His description of the need for a separation between inspector and salesman served as the mortar to the bricks that were being supplied by the president of MAREI, individual members of chapters of NACHI and ASHI, and members of the public who were responding to media publications calling for their support to stop this bill.

Today, the Missouri Association of Realtors published a list of all of the pending bills that they are in support of and sent this list to all of their members. HB 978 is no longer on this list.

Dennis did a wonderful job for us.

Now, there are some states where the real estate salesmen have already taken hold of the industry through legislation that a letter like this...slightly modified...could help garner support to have your present legislation repealed or amended.

With skyrocketing mortgage defaults and increasing complaints made against real estate salesmen with a variety of sources, now is the time for our industry to distance itself.

If not now....when?

[Joseph Burkeson, CMI]

Originally Posted by jmckenna1

Massachusetts to date is the only state that recognizes the inherent or potential conflict of interest when the real estate agent selling a property also recommends the home inspector to the prospective buyer. When the MA home inspector licensing law was passed in 2001, the MA real estate licensing law was amended to prohibit selling agents from directly referring the home inspector. http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/112-87yy.5.htm
That law has been extremely successful in MA. Marginal home inspectors and those who catered more to the referring agent than to their home buying client, are no longer in business.

This position would certainly go a long way in eliminating Real Estate agents from influencing and controlling our profession and I applaud and support seeing that any future state legislation be amended to include similar language.

I also propose that all future licensing legislation eliminate any and all language pertaining to grandfathering, there should be no grandfather clause in any bill. If the standards being proposed are really in the best interest of the public then everyone should have to comply with the standards without exception. Whatever tests, education and experience are required of one should be required of all, that is the only way to make sure that the public will be served by competent inspectors educated with the best known information to date.

I would like to see a group of home inspectors from across the nation and across all associations come together and promote these two primary conditions of licensing whenever and wherever licensing is proposed. Keeping the Realtors out and making the standards applicable to everyone will go a long way to promote home inspector licensing bills that serve the public and level the playing field to each and every inspector, what could be more fair?