KARCI Members and Kansas Inspectors,
Greetings fellow inspectors, on the 17th of July the Kansas Home Inspector Registration Board
held its meeting in Topeka. Present at that meeting along with board members was both I and
Dan Bowers from KARCI and Kerry Parham from KAREI. Kerry Parham and I are serving on
the SOP committee and Dan Bowers in serving on the education committee The board meeting
discussed several items that are important to inspectors.
First I think it important for all members and inspectors to know that the all those in attendance
at the meeting had the best of intentions for home inspectors, our industry, and Kansas
consumers. While discussion was at times interesting and provoking, the intent of protecting
everyone involved was never forgotten. Although I hate admit, even the attorney was trying to
protect inspectors in his own way. At the end of the day, decisions were made and progress
continued.
Foremost on most everyone’s mind is the Standards of Practice that is being developed for
Kansas Inspectors. While no document is perfect I think that great strides were made to give us a
set of standards that inspectors can be confident in. As always, great minds disagree and
concessions were made but good results did prevail. It is of interest to note that during the
drafting of the SOP all three national associations were considered, their standards respected, and
all three equally rejected. Basically that means that this current SOP contains what we all
consider the best of all worlds. I think inspectors from any of the organizations will find
something they are familiar with.
The Kansas City team, Randy Sipe, Stacey VanHouten, and I spent several long days in Topeka
coming up with an initial draft of the SOP. The Wichita team took that draft of lofty ideals, toned
it down and tweaked it and issued a refined product. After much debate today, I am confident
that we are pretty close to an SOP that will work for us.
I challenge inspectors to get involved. Read the revised SOP as it gets published and take a few
moments if you will to provide input if you feel it can help us make this a better document.
The education provider standards were hashed out for quite a while and finally shelved until the
next meeting to provide time for the board to research ideas and ask some important questions.
Establishing a good set of rules and regulations in regards to school requirements is no easy task
but one that must be accomplished in short order. Look for more information to become
available as decisions are made. My personal opinion was that the AG’s office was a little too
involved in the discussion which made the decision making process very difficult for the board.
Maybe this will improve the next go round.
Some decisions in regards to the requirements for education providers should still be carefully
considered. I think that currently the requirements being considered for education provider
instructors come close to denying us the ability to use seasoned and qualified inspectors as
instructors. I think it is important that there be allowances in the rules and regulations that allows
for qualified inspectors to teach those at pre-registration schools. As well, there is some struggle
in determining how the pre-registration education should be presented in regards to online
training. While everyone was in agreement that strictly online courses should be avoided we
must still take into account the technology available today. Technology such as distant education
training that uses video technology for virtual classrooms. I think something to be considered in
this area is some basic requirements such as a means of verifying students are present for the
instructions, a method for students to interact via voice and video, and a minimum class size of
10 students or similar. Considering the demographics for students in a virtual classroom could be
nation-wide, this should be do-able.
During this last SOP meeting, we fought hard to reduce government intervention into your
business. We were instrumental in removing language in the SOP that stipulated what must go
into your contract with your client. It is our opinion that these decisions should be made between
the inspector and his attorney. An inspector should be free to draft his contract through the use of
an attorney so long as it meets the minimum stature requirements and what the inspector and
their attorney feel important. That being said, an inspector would be a fool to have a contract that
has not been carefully reviewed by their attorney. Have you had yours done yet?
Are you getting ready to January 1st, 2010? Are you still unsure what the requirements are for
obtaining your registration to inspect in Kansas? We are looking at having a CEU class in
OCT/NOV time frame with a class intended to educate inspectors on all requirements. We hope
you can find time to attend, it will be a great opportunity to earn CEU’s and become familiar
with the new law that affects you.
We have worked hard to get reasonable language in HB2260 that was signed into law this year.
Dan Bowers took the bull by the horns (the Senate committee) and convinced them through
some fairly excellent testimony, to reduce the liability limit to $2000. It isn’t perfect but it is a far
sight better than $10,000. We still have to work hard to get the language changed in the Statute
whereby we can put wording in our contract to limit our liability to $2,000 instead of the $10,000
that is currently in it. There was a minor snafu at the office of the Reviser and conflicting
language was included in this last bill. This is an administrative error that can be fixed by the
KHIRB (Ks Home Inspector Registration Board) this next legislative session.
There are several bond companies coming out of the woodwork competing for your business. Be
careful to assure that the company you use for your bond is licensed to operate in Kansas; this is
a requirement by the statute! Some vendors you may want to check out so far are:
www.ipsico.com Contact Wally Glaser @ wglaser@ipsico.com
So, what next? Well, on the 10th of August, there will be another meeting of the KHIRB in Wichita.
Information about this meeting will be posted on the KHIRB website. Inspectors should plan on being
there. Your leadership will be working hard to see that the interest of inspectors in Kansas is protected. As
always, we will continue to be your watchdog. This comes at a price however and we need your support.
We strongly believe that less government intervention in our business is a good thing. We have worked
hard to make accomplishments in that regard. Countless hours over the past years have been spent in
Topeka, lobbying in your behalf. What we need is your membership. You need a strong voice in Topeka
and KARCI has been that voice. We have worked hard to earn the respect of Legislators in Topeka and
worked hard to assure your voice is heard. Numbers speak; your membership gives us that. If you haven’t
done so already, get an application for membership and get it in, you will be glad you did. We are the
ONLY organization that has provided you with training and CEU’s, membership meetings, and support in
Topeka. Lets keep it rolling!
Thanks for your support and join the team! Contact me or David Moriconi at david@m3inspect.com for
your application form.
Sincerely,
Michael Greenwalt, President