My Safe Florida Home Program

[Joseph T. Burkeson, CMI]

Failures in the My Safe Florida Home Program continues to portray home inspectors in a bad light. The program has ended for this year and will be rebid sometime in November. I believe the program should be reformed to allow local home inspectors to work one-on-one with homeowners without having to work through a WCE.

Prior to MSFH Program being instituted the then Governor Jeb Bush commissioned the Property and Casualty Insurance Reform Committee to explore all aspects of insurance reform including wind inspections. At one point the committee suggested that the best course of action in regards to Wind Mitigation Inspections would be to work with the Home Inspection community and allow homeowners to be reimbursed by the state. Of course we know that this recommendation was not heeded.

My question and the reason for this Poll is to get a general consensus on how Florida NACHI members view the MSFH Program, and if there is any interest in somehow getting the state to once again review the Reform Committees findings during this lull before the rebid process once again begins.

My hope would be for the state not so much to dump the WCE Program but during this next phase to allow qualified home inspectors to contract directly to the homeowners side-by-side with the WCE's, as sort of a pilot program to see what is really the best solution.

Comments encouraged.

[dmanley]

The program cannot be re-shaped without a push by legislators. Minor changes can be made via the OIR.

What the state needs is licensing for Wind Mitigation Inspectors. The problem with the program has been the lack of skilled inspectors hired by the WCE's and the lack of follow up by the OIR.

Folks got real greedy, real quick. The public has lost all confidence in the program. More of a bad reflection on the state rather the inspection industry. The concept af a Wind Mitigation Inspection is salvagable.

[Joseph T. Burkeson, CMI]

Originally Posted by dmanley

What the state needs is licensing for Wind Mitigation Inspectors.

I am just not wired to support licensing, regardless of the supposed benefit there has to be a better way.

[Mathew Hawley]

It would be great to see NACHI take control of this program.

[Gary L. Porter]

Now they want you to go door to door and past out the forms> Wow I will do their marketing for a whole $80.00. I will do it for myself and make more.

[Greg Bell]

I think that we should focus our efforts on reaching out to the general public being that the current program could only reach about 10% of the homes in Florida that need this service.

I will be pushing hard for Florida NACHI to set up an effective program that will bring awareness to the public about a Insurance Discount Survey and the benefits of hardening their homes for the next hurricane.

This program will allow qualified inspectors to perform these inspections without having to give any of the fee to another company.

We don't need a WCE or any other company taking a share of the fee. I am all for the inspectors doing the work and keeping the fee for themselves.

[Richard L. Bennett]

Greg

Real simple

If the new Florida license is good all of us that are licensed should qualify

rlb

[Greg Bell]

I don't think that we should wait until July 2010. There is an alternative to becoming qualified that isn't that costly compared to the return.

I think that you are correct about licensing. The only problem is that no one will have one before July 2010.

[Richard L. Bennett]

And that is?

rlb

[Greg Bell]

You already know what it is. Take the B1 exam and become a certified Building Inspector.

[Greg Bell]

The cost of the code book is around 120 and the test is 150. So for less than 300 you can be qualified to sign the OIR-B1-1802 form.

[Richard L. Bennett]

Thank you Mr Bell

And all the past inspections were conducted by peolple that were B1

That is good or did I miss something here

As you and I see this program was a good idea that did not work

rlb

[Mathew Hawley]

Gregs ICC Boot Camp is very good. I highly recommend it, his study software is very helpful...well worth the money.

I will be taking the B1 exam soon.

[Mathew Hawley]

Richard,

The inspectors that made all the mistakes likely only took the FLASH 8 hour class. I know many inspectors had family and friends doing the WMI for them so they could make as much money as possible.

[Greg Bell]

Thanks Matt,

This is about helping our members with a new revenue source. I don't want to use this to promote our exam prep. I don't care how people get certified just as long as they do it. If we focus our efforts on just real estate sales then a lot of us will not be in business this time next year.

We need other revenue streams. Such as Commercial inspections, Insurance inspections and what ever else we can come up with.