Licensing fails to protect consumer again.

http://www.news1130.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20091111_175237_11652

Next time hire an InterNACHI inspector… dummies.

BC Home Inspectors were not licensed at the time of the incident.

Try not to ruin a good story. :smiley:

For licensing, I believe BC relies on the very same association mentioned in the article as the poor consumers did.

So a Home Inspector Association failed the consumer?

This incident is one of many reasons why the Commonwealth of Massachusetts came out with the following regulation…

6.06: Prohibitions

Inspectors are prohibited from:

(6) Determining the cost of repairs of any item noted in their Report and/or inspected by them and/or their firm.

It’s not necessary having a law as long as one uses an SOP that says the same thing.

Licensing solves nothing.

This will happen soon in Kansas; attorneys cannot wait for the new laws to take place, and to extort millions from the insurance companies of home inspectors. Newbies will not be trained in the effects of litigation; just the basics of performing home inspections, under the poorest laws ever enacted in Kansas, with different SOP’s than any other state or national association, under the watchful eyes of RE agents; all who just want the home to sell, no matter what.

David Valley writes:

Good point. And why (unlike ASTM) our www.nachi.org/comsop.htm doesn’t require repair estimates. Inspections and repair estimates don’t mix.

You are absolutely correct.

When my clients ask me about a cost figure for a specific defect (which happens on a daily basis), I always tell them (and note in my report) to hire the appropriate contractors for an evaluation for estimates.

Any inspector who quotes pricing of repairs are just asking for a letter from an attorney.

It is common practice here in Florida, in some areas its demanded.

This is very true but it is also illegal. State Contractor law prohibits the estimation of costs to repair unless the estimator is qualified(holds a license) and prepared to do the work for the estimated cost.

Would quoting a repair as you were inspecting but not having any record of the qouted repairs be possbly harmful to a inspector. Isn’t the report the official document and what is verbely said during a inspection not for record??

What are the advantages of quoting repair estimates to Buyers anyways?

I highly recommend letting the professionals do their job and let them give the estimations of repairs. Contractors purchase building materials and deal with billing homeowners every day of the week, we HI’s don’t.

I would like it if when the Fl lisencing COE is finalized by DBPR that precendent set by another state that prohibits estimation found it’s way into our requirements too.

I’m on it.

The advantages are that the Real Estate contracts, in some cases, and until most recently, all cases, had a dollar figure that would allow the buyer out of the contract.
Now, it is something to the effect of a “satisfactory” inspection, whatever that is!

Some of us, have actually done the work and not just taken a home inspection course, and then unleashed on the public. Some of us know exactly what it is going to cost.

If you do not provide estimates in your report here, the Clients will start hiring contractors to do their inspections. At least that is the way it has been, and, most likely probably will be.

To the poster above, “estimates” are just that “estimates”. They are not costs. There is a difference.
I have never heard of a case, here in Florida, where an inspector was held responsible for estimates being inaccurate, especially if it is specifically stated in the report.