I'm typing this from the Florida Home Inspector licensing meeting in Tallahassee.

[Nick Gromicko]

No. A state agency has the power to grandfather inspectors in without there being a specific grandfathering clause in the law. I am now pretty positive InterNACHI members are being grandfathered in (our requirements are at least 10 times more rigorous than any other association's www.nachi.org/rigorous2006). I'm not so sure about one other association and I don't believe their inspectors will enjoy grandfathering (but that is their problem, not ours).

[John Shishilla]

For what it is worth....

Being a Fl Licensed contractor, inspector and claims adjuster. I believe that Home inspection and contracting have little in common. I have personally seen many contractors' inspections that were just wrong.

Inspections must be tailored for the job and audience.
Code inspections are to verify code, home inspections are for buyers and sellers, insurance inspections or for insurance qualifications and draw inspections are for banks. I do not believe anyone should do any particular type without proper experience and training. You must know your audience and what is expected for each. I can read a health inspection form but would not consider myself qualified to do these. I support not allowing contractors to do home inspections and think that a home inspector should be properly trained to do a Wind Mit or four-point.

just my two cents

[Mathew Hawley]

Thanks Nick,

All in business when the Bill was signed should be grandfathered. That would be great if NACHI members were grandfathered.

We also need an SOP that protects inspectors as well as consumers. The bill needs alot of fine tuning, it should be fair to all and not interrupt anyones current business.

[Bruce M. Graham, III]

Any mention of liability limits yet? One year just like the builder gets would be nice.

[James H. Bushart]

Home inspectors caught in Catch-22

Required licenses aren't available

BY JIM ASH • FLORIDA TODAY • September 30, 2009


Already suffering from a grinding recession, Florida's 3,000 home inspectors, and a growing legion of mold inspectors, face a Catch-22 next summer when they are required for the first time to obtain a state license.


The Legislature set the July 1, 2010, deadline two years ago without appropriating any money for the massive new program. Today, even if a home inspector can prove he has 250 hours of training and is willing to undergo a background check and pay the maximum $200 license fee set by law, there are no licenses available and no regulations to follow.
Home inspectors, mold "remediation" specialists and licensed contractors poured out their frustration Tuesday in the first of several workshops sponsored by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

"We have eight months until July 1, 2010," said Harold Weise, a business owner from Pensacola who estimates that he has performed more than 2,000 home inspections over the past 14 years. "There's been two years and four months lost."

Matilde Miller, the department's legislative coordinator, said there is little regulators could do.
"We couldn't begin to do anything with rules or an exam because of the appropriations challenge," she said. "Our key goals are to assure the public safety and not to put anyone out of business."

Meanwhile, the department will plow ahead with a series of rule-making workshops around the state. Miller predicted that the Legislature will come up with a fix in the regular session that begins in March, although no bill has been filed.

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation will ask for more money and more regulators to implement the program when it files its official budget request for next year, said spokeswoman Alexis Antonacci Lambert.

Lawmakers promised a grandfathering clause for existing home inspectors that would allow them to gradually come into compliance, but the language was taken out by the time Gov. Charlie Crist signed the bill into law in June 2007.

Building contractors continued Tuesday to square off against home inspectors over minimal standards. Home inspectors, they argued, should have the same 8,000 hours of training as them.
Larry Cerro, a home inspector from Tallahassee, argued that applicants should have on-the-job training with at least 250 inspections.

"Right now, the way the law is written, a person could become a licensed home inspector without ever having inspected a home," he said.

Chris Paterna, a home inspector from Tallahassee, argued just as passionately that contractors have a built-in conflict of interest when they perform home inspections and offer to fix the flaws they uncover.

"Are you going to hire me to do the re-inspection if I am the contractor?" Paterna said. "What do you think I'm going to tell you about my work?"

[Nick Gromicko]

The bill needs alot of fine tuning

Not a bill anymore, it was signed into law.

[Nick Gromicko]

"Right now, the way the law is written, a person could become a licensed home inspector without ever having inspected a home,"

Has to be one of the funniest quotes coming out of an ASHI press release in a while, considering ASHI not only allows a person to join online in 28 seconds with nothing but a valid credit card, but then encourages their come-only-with-cash associates to go out and perform a certain number of unqualified inspections without any education whatsover for poor unsuspecting consumers, as the only way to achieve full "certified" membership status. Diploma mill ASHI is just too much sometimes

[Nick Gromicko]

Any mention of liability limits yet? One year just like the builder gets would be nice.

No, there was no mention of liability limits at the Tallahassee meeting and I don't believe the department could enact any without going back to the legislators.

[Nick Gromicko]

I made it to Jacksonville late last night and will be attending tomorrows meeting and providing further live updates.

Assuming I can get online, I plan on doing a blow-by-blow detailed account of the meeting tomorrow, as it happens.

[Mathew Hawley]

Get em Nick!! Thanks for all you do. NACHI, being the largest home inspection association, should play a huge role in the fine tuning process of this Bill.

See you in Orlando.

[Brian C. Hoagland]

What about a COE and SOP? Seems obvious that both of these are critical to the developement of a course of study for the 120 hour course which has yet to be approved. I am more than a little concerned about the nonsense of a contractors liscence, I know that the contractors have a heavy lobby hand in florida as well as the realtors. Did their calls for contractors liscensure for home inspectors get anywhere by your perception? What exactly would a contractors liscence enable a home inspector to observe and report better anyway? How many general contractors in Florida even have a clue when it comes to roofing that is due for replacement. That is a different liscense, they can hire someone with it the same way they can hire some one with an electrical or mechanical or etc. They can't do it themselves unless they hold those liscenses too. Pure nonsense. Thanks for update.

[Steve Taylor]

Nick,
Are you anywhere near the beaches at Jax tonight?

[Nick Gromicko]

Yes, I'm on Jax beach.

[Steve Taylor]

Call me if you like and I will buy you a beer. Or- you could buy me a beer.

904-206-0370

[John Shishilla]

Originally Posted by bhoagland

How many general contractors in Florida even have a clue when it comes to roofing that is due for replacement. That is a different liscense, they can hire someone with it the same way they can hire some one with an electrical or mechanical or etc. They can't do it themselves unless they hold those liscenses too. Pure nonsense.

I certainly agree that a contractor(GC, BC or RC) does not always possess the knowledge to do inspections, roof included. But as a contractor I can install a roof, on a house I build, without a roofer. If there is a hurricane I can re-roof houses I did not build(become a roofer). Now would it not make more sense to allow a contractor to roof all the time. They would then have the experience to be a roofer as needed. The State allows us to do them after a storm, when the building inspectors are the busiest. The roofing contractors just have a better lobby. The stronger lobby always wins, even if they are wrong.