North Carolina new rule is hindrance

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

Good for North Carolina .
It shows others what is needed . Good luck.
.............. Cookie

Home inspectors protest proposed changes



Eyewitness News

(11/09/07 -- RALEIGH) - Don't expect any changes to your home inspection reports.
Several home inspectors picketed outside the North Carolina Home Inspector Licensure Board in Raleigh Friday morning.
They're upset about a change that would prevent inspectors from recommending repairs in their summary reports.
Critics say realtors are behind the deal, wanting to make more money and speed up sales. Supporters say the new report would be more uniform. The board decided to review the changes and hold off on a final decision until March.

[Nick Gromicko]

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/766398.html

[rtrain]

I love how some people think…. For years lenders and appraisers screw up the market with sub-prime/ interest only type loans and inflating home value. Now that that bubble has busted let find another way to screw things up (I mean keep the real estate market moving). Too bad it didn't pass.LOL. But I did like Don’s Idea.


Your electrical system is ungrounded???

Your house has smoke detectors

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

Frank Norton, Staff Writer
State regulators on Friday reversed a decision to streamline home inspection reports, dealing a rare setback to the powerful real estate industry.
The about-face followed increasingly vocal outcry from home inspectors and Gov. Mike Easley, who warned that the rule change could harm consumers.
It is unclear whether real estate professionals will continue to push for the change. But experts say their organization, money and influence helped to get the proposal this far in the first place. The group has been traditionally successful at using political clout to get its way. Just this week, the real estate industry helped defeat proposals across the state that would have added a transfer tax to home sales.
Members of the state board that licenses home inspectors voted Friday to reject, for now, a rule change that would have prevented home inspectors from recommending upgrades and safety repairs for homes in the summary section of their reports. Opponents say the real estate industry wanted the change to reduce home inspectors' potential to delay or derail home-sale closings amid a nationwide housing slump.
"The proposed change caused a lot of concern," said James Liles, board vice chairman, who originally supported the measure. "Any time enough information comes to us that generates enough concern, it's important."
The board's decision Friday came one month after it tentatively approved the rule change. The initial ruling fueled fierce opposition from home inspectors statewide -- more than two dozen picketed the N.C. Home Inspector Licensure Board's meeting Friday morning.
A muzzled mouth
One inspector, John Farnum of Raleigh, protested with his hands tied in rope and mouth muzzled to express his outrage.
"This is a victory for homeowners and home buyers in North Carolina," said Frank Moore, a home inspector from Wake Forest who was among those picketing.
The board received dozens of letters from inspectors opposing the change and none in favor.
This week, Easley sent a stern letter to the board asking members to back off the measure, which he said would hurt consumers. Seth Effron, Easley's spokesman, said Friday the governor was pleased, but Effron declined to comment further.
The board voted 4 to 2 to send the proposal back to a committee, which has until March to recommend a new alteration or abandon the effort. Jim Long, the state insurance commissioner who sits on the board, voted in favor of tabling the rule change, a reversal from his support of the rule a day earlier.
Supporters of the measure, led by real estate agent John Hamrick, who began the effort two years ago when he was chairman of the board, said the change would benefit consumers by standardizing all reports and making information uniform and readable throughout.
Opponents argued that it would jeopardize safety by burying important problems or needed repairs in the often-detailed inspection reports.
Several opponents said they were confident that the real estate agents' effort would fade before the board's March deadline to revisit it, despite powerful real estate interests in support of the change.
'Whimpering death'
"I think this may die a quiet, whimpering death," said Marion Peeples, an inspector from Oak Ridge who helped organize the protest.
Board member Liles voted to send it to committee Friday. "It might not come up again," Liles said when asked about the proposed rule's chances of survival. Liles could have a conflict of his own: He's a licensed real estate broker. The licensure board has, by statute, only one slot for a real estate appointee, and that seat is filled by Hamrick. Easley appointed Liles to the board specifically as a home inspector, a profession in which he is licensed but inactive.

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

RALEIGH
After Gov. Mike Easley intervened, a state licensing board yesterday reversed its initial approval of a controversial state rule opposed by North Carolina home inspectors.
Home inspectors argued that the rule, if adopted, would have made it more difficult for them to warn home buyers of safety problems in homes. That’s because the rule would have limited what type of information an inspector can provide in the summary of an inspection.
The N.C. Home Inspector Licensure Board voted earlier this year in favor of the rule, sparking outrage from home inspectors across the state.
Supporters of the rule said that it was meant to force home inspectors to stick to the facts, rather than issuing opinions about the safety of a home that the inspector may not be qualified to make.
Inspectors say they believe that the rule was pushed mainly by real-estate agents in an effort to remove complications from home sales. Inspectors want to be able to use the summary section of an inspection report to warn home buyers about such potential safety problems as a lack of grounded wiring or a staircase railing that lacks a handrail.
Until this week, the licensure board, which regulates the state’s 1,300 licensed home inspectors, appeared to be on the verge of giving final approval to the rule and sending it forward to a state rules committee for confirmation.
But on Wednesday, Easley sent a letter to the board members urging them to reconsider.
“I am greatly troubled by the particular proposal that would limit inspectors from including safety recommendations in the summary section of the report,” Easley wrote.
A spokesman for Easley said that Easley had seen media coverage about the controversy and was following the status of the rule. It is unusual for the governor to intervene in such obscure state regulations.
Yesterday, at its regular meeting, the licensure board voted not to go forward with the rule. Instead, the board sent it back to a committee, where it will likely be revised.
“We can go ahead and take some time and work it out,” said Jim Long, the state commissioner of insurance.
The N.C. Department of Insurance has a seat on the board, which also includes home inspectors and representatives from the real-estate industry.
Board members said that Easley’s intervention affected the outcome yesterday.
“I think it has a whole lot to do with it,” said Gerald Canipe, the board’s chairman, who opposed the rule early on. “He has defied big business in the interest of safety.”
Jim Liles, the vice chairman of the board, had previously been one of the biggest supporters of the rule, but yesterday, he supported sending it back to committee.
Liles said that the outpouring of negative comments from home inspectors, as well as Easley’s letter, convinced him that the rule needed further review.
A small group of home inspectors formed a picket line outside yesterday’s board meeting to protest the rule. After the meeting, they said that they were pleased with the result - for now.
“But still we sense as home inspectors that there’s a movement to simplify the home-buying process,” said Rick Nipper Jr., a home inspector in Raleigh.
■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-833-9056 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com.

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[Nick Gromicko]

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