State of Kansas Home Inspection Bill Signed

[Gary Farnsworth]

Kansas home inspection bill 2315 signed yesterday by Kansas Govenor Kathleen Sebelius. Realtors will now in the State of Kansas be able to perform their own inspections for free, and push the sales of houses. Consumers just lost. And inspectors will be out of business.

http://www.governor.ks.gov/news/News...r-08-0519a.htm

[James H. Bushart]

RE salesmen will still allow you the privilege of inspecting for them as long as you keep your fees at a reasonable level and don't kill their deals.

[Gary Farnsworth]

Under the new bill, I cannot be financially responsible for a home that I inspect for 12 months. That is how the bill reads. I will be responsible for up to $10,000 for any home inspection that I perform. Multiply that times 300 inspections per year that I do, that is over $3 million dollars of insurance that I will have to have. More than a doctor. Realtors, professional engineers, insurance agents are all exempt. They can do inspections for a small fee, or for free, and not have any financial responsibilty or carry insurance. Inspectors, in Kansas, are all but out of business, unless they are one of the RE, engineers, or insurance people. Maybe, I can sell RV's on weekends and do home inspections other days. RV salesmen are exempt also. Sorry. Just venting.

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/2315.pdf

[Joseph Burkeson, CMI]

Well, even the licensing Nazi's can't be happy with this dirty rag.

[Nick Gromicko]

Well, the rest of the law has problems but the $10,000 thing in 11 C is great! You can limit your liability to $10,000 and no one can contest that. No one can afford to chase you for $10,000.

Prior to this law, you could have been sued for millions on each inspection.

Your liability hasn't increased one dime. If it is proven that you are liable for $800... you owe $800...this law changes nothing... But if it is proven that you are liable for $250,000, you can limit it to $10,000.

Our attorneys are already authoring a Kansas version of our inspection agreement for you to use which limits your liability (NOW PERMITTED BY LAW, not just case history).

E&O insurance companies are loving 11 C and so should you.

[Paul Sabados]

Your liability hasn't increased one dime. If it is proven that you are liable for $800... you owe $800...this law changes nothing... But if it is proven that you are liable for $250,000, you can limit it to $10,000.

E&O insurance companies are loving 11 C and so should you.

We'll see just how many companies come up with a 10K E&O program if any or even something close. I hope the new agreement that legal is working on is very air tight

Paul

[klott]

You can bet, that $10,000 limit is not for the inspectors benefit, it is to protect all of those realtor's who don't know how to do inspections. Somebody is in the legislator's pockets, can you guess who it is?

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Well, the rest of the law has problems but the $10,000 thing in 11 C is great! You can limit your liability to $10,000 and no one can contest that. No one can afford to chase you for $10,000.

Prior to this law, you could have been sued for millions on each inspection.

Your liability hasn't increased one dime. If it is proven that you are liable for $800... you owe $800...this law changes nothing... But if it is proven that you are liable for $250,000, you can limit it to $10,000.

Our attorneys are already authoring a Kansas version of our inspection agreement for you to use which limits your liability (NOW PERMITTED BY LAW, not just case history).

E&O insurance companies are loving 11 C and so should you.

Nick,

There is nothing good about this.

In Kansas, the inspectors have been allowed by the courts to successfully limit their liability to the cost of the inspection. The real estate salesmen think that this is grossly unfair and last year used their infrastructure to support a move by the state's trial attorneys to raise it from the inspection fee to $100,000.

This move killed the bill, and it did not pass.

This year, the real estate salespeople asked the trial attorneys to stay quiet and go along with their $10,000 increase...with the understanding that once the bill becomes law, an adjustment from $10,000 to $100,000 can be made without going through the same difficulty as passing a law.

The trial attorneys agreed to the real estate salesmen's request and, yesterday, the Governor of Kansas played her role in the affair.

If you were out here in the trenches, you would not be so easily fooled as you are by what "appears" to be good in these local ASHI attempts to control the industry through legislation.

Now, go ahead and ask where ASHI is in this law. I'm ready for you. (Hint: an earlier version of this bill grandfathered NACHI members).

[Gary Farnsworth]

Nick, read the new Kansas bill again. Note that you are responsible for anything that goes wrong in a home that you inspect for 12 months. Multiply $10,000 times the number of inspections per year, and you end up with the amount of insurance that you will need. And, when the buyer does not buy a home due to an inspection, a RE can go back to the home, "find" something wrong, and sue at will. Then, they get their lost commissions. I have a year to find a regular job.

[Nick Gromicko]

Jim writes:

an adjustment from $10,000 to $100,000 can be made without going through the same difficulty as passing a law.

So you are complaining that it might be possible for something to go wrong in the future? I can't argue with that.

Jim writes:

Hint: an earlier version of this bill grandfathered NACHI members

Yeah, an earlier version of this bill grandfathered ASHI members too, but it was removed as well.

Now the licensing board has the uncomfortable job of figuring out how to approve a known no-requirement diploma mill with a 30 second online application process http://www.homeinspector.org/join/ap...n/default.aspx

Funny thing about being appointed to a licensing board... human beings typically live up to the responsibilities of the office. I suspect it might be pretty difficult for the licensing board in Kansas to approve ASHI and their 30 second, come-only-with-a-credit-card, shazam application.

Either way they're screwed. If they don't approve ASHI, what does that say for ASHI? If they do approve ASHI along side real associations such as www.nachi.org/requirementcomparison.htm what does that say for the Board? I'm going to have a field day with this one.

Either way is fine with me.

[Nick Gromicko]

Gary writes:

Nick, read the new Kansas bill again. Note that you are responsible for anything that goes wrong in a home that you inspect for 12 months.

Can you reference the part of the law that says that?

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Jim writes: So you are complaining that it might be possible for something to go wrong in the future? I can't argue with that.

Jim writes:

Yeah, an earlier version of this bill grandfathered ASHI members too, but it was removed as well.

Now the licensing board has the uncomfortable job of figuring out how to approve a known no-requirement diploma mill with a 30 second online application process http://www.homeinspector.org/join/ap...n/default.aspx

Funny thing about being appointed to a licensing board... human beings typically live up to the responsibilities of the office. I suspect it might be pretty difficult for the licensing board in Kansas to approve ASHI and their 30 second, come-only-with-a-credit-card shazam application.

Either way their screwed. If they don't approve ASHI, what does that say for ASHI? If they do approve ASHI along side real associations such as www.nachi.org/requirementcomparison.htm what does that say for the Board? I'm going to have a field day with this one.

Either way if fine with me.

Well, let's hope you are wrong.

Two of the five seats to this licensing board belong to real estate salesman. They need one scared home inspector dependent upon that industry for referrals to control the whole state of home inspectors. Let's hope they do not live up to their potential...

Nick...take your blinders off.

I know these bills make money for NACHI...but they hurt the inspector and they hurt the industry.

[James H. Bushart]

Every private businessman in Kansas....with the new exception of the Kansas home inspector....has the right to negotiate his fee and his degree of liability with his customer.

No businessman in Kansas....with the new exception of the Kansas home inspector...is told by the government his liability per transaction. Not even the real estate salesman who pushed for this law.

You are ignoring that, prior to this law, the Kansas inspector had the protected right to limit his liability to his inspection fee. The courts were upholding that right.

[Nick Gromicko]

Tell me when and where the first Board meeting is and I'll be there with 2 attorneys and set the tone from the get go to make sure the Board does nothing to harm the inspection industry.

Again, I find that people who get appointed to licensing boards live up to their official positions pretty well and with one exception in 18 years of state licensing... seem to act reasonably and do the right things.

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Tell me when and where the first Board meeting is and I'll be there with 2 attorneys and set the tone from the get go to make sure the Board does nothing to harm the inspection industry.

Okay