2009 - The Year of the Repeal

[James H. Bushart]

Instead of sitting around waiting for and killing the inevitable Missouri home inspection bill that slithers from under a different rock each legislative session...I am putting forth a more proactive plan to benefit inspectors and the industry in a variety of states.

I have been in contact with a national civil liberties type organization that exists for no other reason than to file lawsuits against state governments for laws that injure some citizens while benefiting other citizens in the marketplace.

With the anticipated state budget shortfalls, increasing the expense of their existing home inspection laws by forcing them into court can have a positive effect....not only in getting some of them repealed but in preventing some from even being filed.

Accordingly, if you are (or once was) a home inspector in a licensed state but were damaged (or forced out of business) by a licensing law that, for instance, mandated E&O insurance (favoring the high volume inspector over the rural inspector), required to attend and pay for an expensive training school (while others in your state were arbitrarily "grandfathered") or some other measure designed to "thin the herd", I would like for you to email me. If your case is acceptable, you may be entitled to free representation by this (or another) group in a lawsuit that will require that you be made whole and that the law be overturned.

You can email me at jimbushart@hotmail.com .

[Michael Roberson]

Thank God there I currently live in a no license state, However if MI house Bill 6088 passes, I will defiantly be forced out of business and giving you a call.

What Org is it?

[Nick Gromicko]

There are many problems with licensing, but the biggest problem is that it harms consumers by providing state-issued "cover" for incompetent inspectors.

Thanks to the 2nd largest home inspection association in the U.S., most states require nearly nothing to be a home inspector, while the very same association that pushes for the weak licensing requires absolutely nothing to become a member.

Disgusting.

[Nick Gromicko]

And most incompetent inspectors desire to be better and are willing to improve, provided there are convenient and affordable educational opportunities out there: http://www.nachi.org/blind.htm

[James H. Bushart]

Nick...do you have any original thoughts on any topic, or is everything posted simply an opportunity to advertise NACHI and bash other associations?

The reason that I ask this is that there has never...not one solitary time...been a home inspection bill/law driven by consumers. All of them...every single one of them...have been pushed by special interests using these laws for financial gain and home inspectors (of all associations) seeking advantage over others.

This issue, as important as it is to our industry, has never been worth fighting for or against, in your opinion. You have stood idle while pretending to object in every state where it has been fought...and only engaging in communications where you could gain advantage by selling your wares once a law has been passed.

You stand for nothing. Accordingly, since your having retaken the reigns of ED, neither does NACHI (interNACHI or whatever it is that NAHI makes you refer to it as).

Legislation is a home inspector issue. As you have pointed out, consistently, NACHI is not a home inspector association anymore.

So...please....keep you association bashing and your P.T. Barnum "sideshow tent" hyperbole out of the discussion that actually affects the lives and livelihoods of home inspectors. You are too far out of touch to be relevant in these types of matters. Sorry.

[Nick Gromicko]

What "actually affects the lives and livelihoods of home inspectors" are those like you, who financially fund the dragon that attacks our industry. Do you not know where the everyone-passes NHIE came from? You might want to look at their BOD.

You self-righteously complain that InterNACHI isn't part of the solution to the extent you think we should be... while shamelessly forgetting that it is YOU (and your wallet) that are the real problem.

[James H. Bushart]

Home inspectors know their friends from their foes.

I joined NACHI when it was an association for home inspectors and, when you told me that it no longer was, I left. End of that discussion.

As to the licensing issue, the financial circumstances of many states have created for us the unique opportunity to afford legislators who are looking for ways to reduce their expenditures to do so in a way that will benefit the state, the consumer, and the inspector...by repealing its law that does nothing to improve the quality of home inspections, anyway.

Some may not even need the "wake-up" call of a lawsuit.

Now is the time.

[Nick Gromicko]

Jim writes:

I joined NACHI when it was an association for home inspectors and, when you told me that it no longer was, I left. End of that discussion.

What discussion? I didn't say anything about your membership InterNACHI.

You are as silly as they guy who invests heavily in Haliburton, then complains about the Iraq war.

[James H. Bushart]

Your obsession with ASHI has you putting the full weight of the licensing problems on their soldiers...wanting people to believe that their dues to ASHI is equivalent to passing a licensing law.

Yet...you have done nothing with what you claim to be "the largest and best inspection association" to counter them.

Sure...you take your shots from the security of your own keyboard posting to the message board where you control full editorial rights....but those of us who are on the battlefield have never seen your face. Why is that? Cowardice, perhaps...or is it something else.

You think that it is "silly" and "stupid" for an inspector to recommend repair, monitoring, or evaluation after identifying a defect.....but it does not stop you from hyping a $99 CD full of such narrative comments that you say will improve his report and reduce his liability.

Likewise, licensing is wrong (you say)....but you do nothing to oppose it while you seek a licensing board who will embrace NACHI Tv.

You stand for nothing, Nick....but for Nick. That is fine, but it is no reason to hate ASHI.

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by gromicko

There are many problems with licensing, but the biggest problem is that it harms consumers by providing state-issued "cover" for incompetent inspectors.

Thanks to the 2nd largest home inspection association in the U.S., most states require nearly nothing to be a home inspector, while the very same association that pushes for the weak licensing requires absolutely nothing to become a member.

Disgusting.

I guess so, Nick,............... but why are approximately 77% of people (approx 16,700) who passed the INACHI exam since September/2006 not members of this association?

Have they.....
1) decided not to join?
2) joined and then failed as HI's
3) since the test is open and free to the public, many in the general public may take the test for fun and pass but have no reason to join. This may point out that the test is very easy (or so I have been told by a few members!!) if thousands in the general public can pass it!!

[Nick Gromicko]

Jim, if you quit all associations, I would agree that you are a man of principle. But you fighting crappy licensing with your left hand while you fund crappy licensing with your right hand, makes you a hypocrite. Also Jim, InterNACHI is not only non-profit, it is Federally Tax Exempt as well (most non-profits are not also Federally Tax Exempt).

Brian, in the same way that 61% can't pass just one of our entrance exams http://exams.nachi.org/oe/stats.php even more can't agree to fulfill the rest of our requirements: www.nachi.org/membership.htm. InterNACHI membership is just too much work for most. Brian, since ASHI has no exams at all to join, you might ask why don't 100% of all inspectors join them.

[Nick Gromicko]

http://www.nachi.org/rigorous2006.htm

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Jim, if you quit all associations, I would agree that you are a man of principle. But you fighting crappy licensing with your left hand while you fund crappy licensing with your right hand, makes you a hypocrite.

I don't think anyone would agree that my position against licensing...like my past position of defending NACHI against its many critics...has as much to do with principle as it does practicality.

Licensing is bad for my profession (it "dumbs it down"), is bad for my business (it instantly creates "licensed" professionals out of my newbie competitors), and is wrong for any association who puts its profession and members first.

I could not weigh into the fight against the HI law that you embraced, as NACHI's ED, and published as being "the most HI friendly law in the country" as a member of NACHI without doing the what you are accusing me of as a member of ASHI.

While there are ASHI members who are working toward legislation that I oppose, they also are unified in opposition against the legislation that you have embraced and praised.

In that regard, I can work with them and supplement their efforts with mine to see that the debacle of Kansas does not move into this state. When it comes to fighting the ASHI legislation, I can use my own membership in ASHI to show that their support for it is not universal. As a member of NACHI....I get you to buy me a case of K. Swift books to hand out to realtors.

The choice was not that hard for me, Nick.

[Joseph T. Burkeson, CMI]

Originally Posted by jbushart

With the anticipated state budget shortfalls, increasing the expense of their existing home inspection laws by forcing them into court can have a positive effect....not only in getting some of them repealed but in preventing some from even being filed.

Hi Jim,

Florida falls into the anticipated state budget shortfalls category, we currently have an unfunded license that is scheduled to go into effect in 2010. Hopefully the state will wisely continue to not fund this legislation that provides zero prosperity and is simply another burden on the taxpayer. Not funding this legislation would be the best solution because it would most likely quell any further legislation proposals that home inspectors would have to address.

The next few years may be very important to those of us who work behind the lines against home inspector licensing legislation as more & more states will face a budget shortfall crisis. Hopefully we can use this time to arrest and even roll back some of the more damaging legislation and diminish the prominence the NHIE holds through their lobbyists within state legislations through civil liberties type organizations and citizens licensing reform groups.

For so very long we have all been living under the false notion that Growth = Prosperity, very soon we will all come to the realization that both Growth & Prosperity are dependent on Surplus. In the last twenty years we have been living in unprecedented times where the Surplus allowed the luxury of both Growth & Prosperity, this unfortunately is no longer the case. Governments are slowly coming to grips with the understanding that they will have to choose between Growth and Prosperity, as there will not be enough state revenue to fund both, and all the while realizing that Home Inspector Licensing is a Growth function which provides little if any Prosperity to the citizens of the state.

Jim, thanks for all your effort, hopefully more inspectors will see that folly that home inspector licensing is and will work to help defeat and repeal this type of taxpayer burden.

All the best,

Joe.

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by jbushart

Licensing is bad for my profession (it "dumbs it down"), is bad for my business (it instantly creates "licensed" professionals out of my newbie competitors), and is wrong for any association who puts its profession and members first.

JB:

In the same vein:

INACHI is bad for my profession (it "dumbs it down"), is bad for my business (it instantly creates "certified" professionals out of my newbie competitors) and is wrong for any association who (claims to) put its profession and members first.

In a much earlier post, Will Decker agreed with the sentence in blue!!