proposed legislation to change Washington HI law

[Ron E. Perkerewicz]

there is a proposed bill in the Washington State legislature to change the grandfather provision to next July for the lazy ones who did not get their lic in time. It is SB 6433. they also want to add mold and some fire safety isssue to the SOP requirements with SB5644

[James R. Szczesny]

silly

[Nick Gromicko]

Good things happening in Washington State for InterNACHI. Stay tuned early next week for the first of good news. I'll post it here.

[James H. Bushart]

...just when you thought your law was successfully keeping others out of the profession......doh!

[Stephen W. Stanczyk]

There have been 4 bills introduced to change or add language to the Home Inspector legislation currently in effect.

Bill 6433 would declare an emergency and allow those that met the grandfather requirements to have until July 1, 2010 to apply under the grandfather provisions.

In other words, those that were too lazy to fill out the paperwork or were unable to pass the test in the 14 months between the time the bill went into effect and the grandfather deadline want another 9 months to make up for their ineptitude. I wonder if they will be giving refunds to those that did meet the requirements and deadline or at least extend their license.

Bill 6426 would eliminate a large number of State Advisory Boards including the Home Inspector Advisory Board.

The hearing for this bill was held on January 21st. When people arrived to testify at 8:00am, they found that the Home Inspector Board had already been removed from this bill. No notice was given but it looks like since the Home Inspector Program was required to be self sufficient and paid for by license fees, there is no savings to the State to eliminate this particular board.

Bill 6434 Would require that any classroom courses teaching the fundamentals of home inspection (needed for licensure) would be required to offer the class in both Eastern AND Western Washington.

This has got to be one of the stupidest ideas yet. So a technical college or private school in Western Washington that offers the course would be required to open a branch in the Eastern side of the state even though they don't have any presence there. None of the other required schools for other professions have this requirement. HVAC, Electrical, barbers, appraisers, plumbing, police academies....

Bill 5644 is a re-introduced bill that would affect 3 portions of the current law.
1. This section modifying RCW 18.280.030 would add a requirement for home inspectors to look for "mold" along with certain fire and safety hazards, as defined by the home inspector advisory licensing board.

This didn't go anywhere last time.

2. Add a new paragraph: The board has the following authority in administering this chapter: (3) To approve qualified instructional courses. In order to facilitate distance learning, the board must approve both online and traditional classroom courses that meet appropriate instructional standards.”

Self explanatory.

3. In order to become licensed as a home inspector, an applicant must submit the following to the department: (1) An application on a form developed by the department;
(2) Proof of a minimum of one hundred twenty hours of ((classroom)) instruction approved by the board.”

Deletes the requirement for the initial fundamentals course to be classroom education. It would allow for the fundamentals course to be an online course.

[Stephen W. Stanczyk]

At a regular meeting of the Washington Association of Property Inspectors last night, there was a new person attending that had just finished the State approved AHIT fundamentals course. There were 40 people in this class. 9 were absolute newbies. the other 31 were current inspectors that did not meet the grandfather requirements and were fulfilling the licensing requirements so they could get licensed prior to their deadline on July 1, 2010.

The last class at Bellingham Tech had 4 students and if I remember hearing correctly, they were possibly going to cancel the next class due to lack of students.

We are right around 400 inspectors state wide at this time.

[Mike O'Handley]

Originally Posted by jbushart

...just when you thought your law was successfully keeping others out of the profession......doh!

That's a pretty silly reply.

From that, I guess that we're supposed to infer that the law was initiated to keep others out of the profession and has nothing to do with consumer protection. That's like saying that the requirement for a driver's license is designed to prevent you from driving a car.

All the law does is ensure that those who get into the profession are minimally qualified; nothing more, nothing less. Kind of like how your driver's requirements and test ensure that you are minimally qualified to drive an auto on the road.

It's like what a professional engineer, an electrician or a plumber has to to through to get a license in in states where those professions are licensed.

Again, those systems aren't designed to ensure that the person getting the license is the absolute best in the business; they are designed to ensure that the person is minimally qualified. From that point on; it's up to that person to work to become better at what he or she does and the future will decide how successful that person becomes.

From these bills, it looks like someone, apparently over in Eastern Washington, doesn't want to have to prove that he or she is minimally qualified to inspect peoples' homes.

I've been told that there is someone over there that has failed the NHIE no less than five times. Five times? Jeez, anyone that's halfway competent, that's been doing this for three months, should be able to pass that test with flying colors. If someone can't pass that test, should he or she really be charging people money for a home inspection? If someone failed the test to be licensed as a professional electrician, would you want that person wiring your mother's home?

If the requirements to pass that test are preventing this person from becoming licensed, and force this person to go back to school and learn the job, thereby giving that person enough knowledge to make that person minimally competent, I think the system will have worked to the benefit of the consumer. And guess what, he or she, though maybe inconvenienced, will not have been kept out of the profession.

Apparently, licensing does solve something.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Mike O'Handley]

I just got notified that there will be a public hearing on SB 6433 and SB6434 at 1:30 pm on Tuesday, January 26 in senate hearing room #4 in the J.A. Cherberg building. Jerry MacDonald, Director of the Real Estate Division of DOL, is scheduled to address the Labor and Commerce committee on this.

Anyone interested in speaking for or against either one of these bills should shuffle their schedule around and attend.

Anyone that wants to keep tabs on these bills only needs to subscribe to the bill's announcement page to know what's going on with these bills. Any action on these is posted to that site and if you're subscribed to the bill you'll be notified via email.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike O'Handley, LHI
Your Inspector LLC.
Kenmore, Washington
Wa. Lic. Home Inspector #202

[Mike O'Handley]

Originally Posted by sstanczyk

Bill 6426 would eliminate a large number of State Advisory Boards including the Home Inspector Advisory Board.

The hearing for this bill was held on January 21st. When people arrived to testify at 8:00am, they found that the Home Inspector Board had already been removed from this bill. No notice was given but it looks like since the Home Inspector Program was required to be self sufficient and paid for by license fees, there is no savings to the State to eliminate this particular board.

Steven,

Actually, people didn't arrive for a hearing on this bill. The hearing was on the house bill - HB2617. The companion bill to this one that was introduced by Sen' Tom and Prentice - SB6426 - is still active and hasn't been scheduled for a hearing yet. SB6426 would allow the board to stay in place until June 30, 2013.

Senate Bill 5994 - Gregoire's bill from last year has been reintroduced and is still in play. A substitute bill has been introduced. SSB 5994 adds a provision to Gregoire's original bill that directs agencies to find other means for the public to interact with agencies when the boards are eliminated. Under SSB 5994 the board is eliminated on June 30th of this year and the Director at DOL assumes all of the boards duties.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike O'Handley, LHI
Your Inspector, LLC.
Kenmore, Washington
Wa. Lic. Home Inspector #202

[Stephen W. Stanczyk]

My bad. When Sandy was talking about these bills at our meeting, we started with the one about the Boards. The one listed first in her email was 6426 so I thought it was that particular bill. Oops

[Rob Jones]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Good things happening in Washington State for InterNACHI. Stay tuned early next week for the first of good news. I'll post it here.

Sounds really exciting....

[James R. Szczesny]

There were 40 people in this class. 9 were absolute newbies. the other 31 were current inspectors that did not meet the grandfather requirements and were fulfilling the licensing requirements so they could get licensed prior to their deadline on July 1, 2010.

I wonder how many of them students have already taken the Kaplan class a few years ago.
Kaplan really flaked out on there class knowing none of their credits are no good to Washington. Or how many of them students already have more than a 100 inspections or even more than a 1000 inspections and still have to come up with 40 hours of traing under another inspector.
I guess I should find out soon. I take the class Feb 20th.
I will have at that time over 300 hours of class room education and over a 500 inspections.
Maybe I'll be able to pass the test too?
you think???

[Mike O'Handley]

Originally Posted by jszczesny

I wonder how many of them students have already taken the Kaplan class a few years ago.
Kaplan really flaked out on there class knowing none of their credits are no good to Washington. Or how many of them students already have more than a 100 inspections or even more than a 1000 inspections and still have to come up with 40 hours of traing under another inspector.
I guess I should find out soon. I take the class Feb 20th.
I will have at that time over 300 hours of class room education and over a 500 inspections.
Maybe I'll be able to pass the test too?
you think???

James,

Has Kaplan not made any effort to come up with a supplemental course that can bridge the gap between what they'd been training and what's required by the state? Very soon, those courses should count, as long as the provider gets supplemental training approved.

Things have been falling apart at Kaplan's home inspection division ever since they fired Don Normal, closed their schools and consolidated everything in the midwest.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Joseph Burkeson, CMI]

Originally Posted by Mike O'Handley

That's a pretty silly reply.

From that, I guess that we're supposed to infer that the law was initiated to keep others out of the profession and has nothing to do with consumer protection. That's like saying that the requirement for a driver's license is designed to prevent you from driving a car.

All the law does is ensure that those who get into the profession are minimally qualified; nothing more, nothing less. Kind of like how your driver's requirements and test ensure that you are minimally qualified to drive an auto on the road.

It's like what a professional engineer, an electrician or a plumber has to to through to get a license in in states where those professions are licensed.

Again, those systems aren't designed to ensure that the person getting the license is the absolute best in the business; they are designed to ensure that the person is minimally qualified. From that point on; it's up to that person to work to become better at what he or she does and the future will decide how successful that person becomes.

From these bills, it looks like someone, apparently over in Eastern Washington, doesn't want to have to prove that he or she is minimally qualified to inspect peoples' homes.

I've been told that there is someone over there that has failed the NHIE no less than five times. Five times? Jeez, anyone that's halfway competent, that's been doing this for three months, should be able to pass that test with flying colors. If someone can't pass that test, should he or she really be charging people money for a home inspection? If someone failed the test to be licensed as a professional electrician, would you want that person wiring your mother's home?

If the requirements to pass that test are preventing this person from becoming licensed, and force this person to go back to school and learn the job, thereby giving that person enough knowledge to make that person minimally competent, I think the system will have worked to the benefit of the consumer. And guess what, he or she, though maybe inconvenienced, will not have been kept out of the profession.

Apparently, licensing does solve something.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Bull****

One jerk - one jerkoff

[James R. Szczesny]

Has Kaplan not made any effort to come up with a supplemental course that can bridge the gap between what they'd been training and what's required by the state? Very soon, those courses should count, as long as the provider gets supplemental training approved.

They said they were doing something, But what is a guy supposed to do..Wait?
And see if it happens...
just gonna get out of the way,
Over all I think the inspectors in this state should be doing very well saying that between the realestate economy and the new licensing taking out nearly half the inspectors in the state.