Florida Legislative Meeting

[Jay Schwartz]

Hi to all:

I wanted to let everyone know that I will be participating in a roundtable discussion on Friday with ASHI, NAHI, and FABI a DRAFT PROPOSAL of the 2007 Home Inspection Bill.

I was asked to participate by Joey Caballero, Past President of FABI. I have been in contact with some key NACHI inspectors throughout the State in anticipation of this meeting.

I have not been paid by NACHI to be there. I am going on my own dime. I have travel expenses and will lose two days of income.

I have spoken with Harvey Gordon and I anticipate in the very near future to have FloridaNACHI State Chapter organized. We will have the largest organized contigent of inspectors in the State. There will be minimal associated costs for participation. As your Director of Legislative Affairs, it is my job to keep you informed about any legislative developments. We will be organized by Region. Details to follow.

I would like to share with you the latest email from Joey and the attached proposed Bill Draft.

Everyone,

I am looking forward to seeing everyone this Friday. Attached is copy of a revised draft with proposed changes, last meeting other than 2nd tier and experience we agreed on most components. I have attached to the begging of the draft a letter/document I started that will explain the work of the volunteer Alliance group has done, purpose and rationales. However, I barely started and hope someone else can pick up the slack! The idea I had was to show that most if not all home inspections associations in Florida are in agreement for the first time on the content’s of the bill, which probably represents 80% of the home inspectors in Florida. Jim Nolan and I figure there are 4,500 plus home inspectors in the state. The 2nd point was to show that the proposed draft bill will be ready with little work by the state and DBPR and will not be a financial burden. The 3rd point was to write something to include with the bill that will explain and diffuse the critic and groups opposing the bill due to their personal self interest and not the interest of the consumers or the home inspection profession. I feel we should be prepare and act instead of reacting.

I was not included in the previous meetings. I am going with an open mind and will speak about any input is see in this thread over the next 24 hours. It is vital that you respond so I can represent your thoughts.

[James H. Bushart]

Jay,

The opening paragraph refers to "representatives". To whom will you be representing that you are, indeed, "representing" NACHI? Will the legislators that you solicit with your draft be under the impression that NACHI was "represented" in its development?

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by jschwartz1

It is vital that you respond so I can represent your thoughts.

Will you be representing the thoughts of the members who prefer that there be no bill? Can that not be done by not be present?

[Jay Schwartz]

Jim:

NACHI is at the table. I have been in comminication with Blaine Wiley.
I am not soliciting anything. I have nothing to do with the pdf provided. I am seeing all of this for the first time myself. I am going to hear the reasons why NACHI should support the Draft and to share the feedback with the group.

[Jay Schwartz]

Originally Posted by jbushart

Will you be representing the thoughts of the members who prefer that there be no bill? Can that not be done by not be present?

Yes.

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by jschwartz1

Yes.

Cool

[Carl Pennick]

Nice one Jay,

If I can be any help feel free to drop me a line

[Richard L. Bennett]

Start reading the proposed bill - and helping Jay with some hard facts

I am seeing some problems all ready and I have only started to take it apart

Jay --

For one you are good but you are not a rep of NACHI Florida members - Isn't Nick on the FABI board?

How the heck did you get a call from the X pres of FABI? He should have called Nick if Nick is on his board to go to their meeting. It is not right for you to have to go at your expense. Have someone go to the meeting that lives closer -- Have HG call BW call NG and get some expence $$

If this is not a national issue then Nick should get off the FABI board and put you on it as our state rep. You know the local issues better that Nick because you live and work here plus you know most of us better that Nick does because he must know 10000 and their needs and you only have to know 1000 and our needs. You do not have to be a member to be on the FABI board.

I have also said that good regs are ok but we have not seen one yet. I do not think we should buy into the subject of Regulation just because we can present it just so someone else does not. The purpose of the regulation is to protect the consumer NOTHING MORE

Remember Florida NACHI members outnumber all those other orgs and maybe all of them combined -- and they want US to sit at their table for their good and well being.

We should invite them to sit at our table and agree to our ideas about regulation if we could ever agree on our own ideas -- and I do not mean just the ideas of us that read and post. There are many paid Florida NACHI member that are HI's - not schools or vendors - that do not know that you are going to the meeting

So I am started again on this subject. I knew that someone was still trying to save us HI's from ourselves. How can we go 10 plus years without regulation with very few problems and now the consumer needs protection?

Must get back to reading this crap again

rlb

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by rbennett

How can we go 10 plus years without regulation with very few problems and now the consumer needs protection?

It's NEVER about the consumer, Richard. It's just that no one has yet figured out a way to get a legislator to sponsor a bill for the real reasons. We all know what they are.

[Richard L. Bennett]

10-4

rlb

[gporter]

Way to long. They will shread it

[Scott Byrnes]

Jay,

I'm not great on outlining exact wording for such things as this, but a few points I saw that you may want to keep an eye on:
A lot of the SOP... NACHI has a good SOP, and several items were worded in the NACHI SOP that would protect us more than ASHI's SOP. Mix and match the best of both worlds would serve us better. I can see someone arguing,"Ours is better than yours," when it should be, "what's best for everyone???"
Also, the extra services like 4 point and FLASH inspections should not even be in there. Neither of these are going to be covered under the SOP, and may also conflict with the SOP. And both 4 point and FLASH are an insurance issue and will be, should be yanked on that reason alone.
All the rest, it just sounds like blustering and making us have to jump through more hoops. All of a sudden I have to be ICC certified to inspect commercial.
Also, the education. It keeps looking like gas prices. When I first joined NACHI it was 75. Now it's up to 150. Every time you turn around this number keeps climbing. One state has it at 90, another has it at 120... are we trying to show everyone that we study harder? Why don't we just change it to that everyone should have a Bachelor's Degree in HI before they're allowed to inspect.
Speaking of climbing, same thing with the grandfathering clause. If we keep increasing the number, only our grandfather's will be able to inspect.
Also, don't make people indentured servants to other inspectors. We are not doctors that need to be closely monitored to assure we're doing our job well. We're home inspectors. Doing 250 inspections with another inspector doesn't mean you did 250 inspections well.
Just my opinion.
BTW, thanks for taking this on!

[Scott Byrnes]

Jay,

One more point. Most of us don't want the licensing. That's given. It's eventually going to happen. That's given.
Why not work to make it as simple and possible? Florida is a right to work state. Stuffing a proposal full of reasons why people can't work won't fly.
I know you are not doing it!! I know you had nothing to do with the draft you posted. I'm just throwing things out there for you to think about and maybe bring up to these others trying to come up with something that will pass.
Bottom line: We're home inspectors. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Jay Schwartz]

Hi to all:

You all know where I have stood and still stand. Check out all of the legislative posts I have made over the last two years. I have statements from Blaine and John that I will be sharing with the group. This is a great opportunity for NACHI and I plan on using it to our advantage.

Meeting starts in 2 hours. Keep the posts coming. I will be checking them throughout the day.

[Carl Pennick]

Hello Jay,

Like Scott's post's I am in no make making any criticism of yourself. One of the problems I have with the draft is that commercial is in there. This is a home inspection bill, would it not be better to take out commercial all together and let the state deal with that another time.
Also 500 inspections in your 1st 3 years I would say there are very few people that could have done that. Again as Scott has all ready pointed out this will exclude to many inspectors. One of the reasons Gov Bush vetoed the other bills was because it would have put to many people out of business, this draft will end up the same way.