I tried to tell everyone.

http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2009/06/22/smallb1.html?b=1245643200^1848212&page=2

This article quotes agents who do “inspections”:

XXXX’s team has been able to establish a niche with out-of-town foreclosure investors through the services of one of her agents, D… T… He has home construction experience and, therefore, is able to advise investors on how much they will need to spend making homes habitable.

Anyone in KS can call themsleves a home inspector, correct?

No. They must now be licensed…except for used house salesmen.

Oh my! I thought that stupidity got crushed. :shock:

My sympathies for the former HIs in KS. :frowning:

The realtors worked the legislation this way…

They can inspect a house with no E&O and maintain a seat on the HI licensing board, but home inspectors must be insured and cannot limit their liability to less than $10,000.

Unlike Mr. Farnsworth, the majority of Kansas inspectors simply grabbed their ankles and took it like sissies in fear of angering their favorite realtor and losing referrals. Now that business has dried up to a trickle and many of them are out of business, there are not enough inspectors left to make any noise.

It’s sad the way Kansas was killed by legislation, but it is hard to really pity those who stood along the trench waiting to be shot and thrown into the mass grave – thinking that their favorite realtor would show them mercy.

So, correct me if I’m wrong…

A Home Inspector (the neutral third party in a RE transaction) requires a license and E&O.

The agent selling the house (who stands to loose many thousands of dollars if the deal falls through) without any background or HI training at all can do the duties of a Home Inspector, without a license and with zero liability?

That is the stupidest thing I ever heard of.

How long till a KS legislator’s new home causes harm that the untrained agent/checker (can’t even call 'em inspectors) should have caught?

Were they allowed to lubricate themselves prior to the “ankle grab”??

Simple solution
All Hi become RE Agents and screw up all the commissions by taking them along with your fee.

Make them pay!

Start a RE Offic on your own where every used house salesman is a trained HI and grab all the business. (scr-w them.)

My real estate class starts in September. Dan Bowers needs to resurect his real estate license, and lead the way. If you can’t beat them, join them.

It will just be a matter of time before some RE screws up, and gets sued. It will have to be that way to get anything changed. Mr. Barnes has ruined the home inspection industry in Kansas single handedly. He had absolutley no idea what he was getting into. He only listened to special interest groups and the attorneys handling this whole thing. Thanks to him, RE agents are now doing inspections for home buyers in Kansas.

Guys -

Do yourself a favor, and really read both the Kansas Bill (2260) and most other state licensing Bills. You will find NOT only real estate agents (not all agents join the Board of Realtors and become realters, just like not all home builders join the HBA, nor do all home inspectors join NACHI, NAHI or ASHI).

So back to the dirade. MOST licensing laws for home inspectors do something THAT very few other professional licensing laws do … they exclude a WHOLE lot of people (except for home inspectors).

They exclude appraisers, mobile home repair guys, lenders, code guys, etc, etc WHILE doing what their license allows them to do. NOW it so happens that a great many other professions SEEM to do parts of what might be called a home inspection. This is NOT just KANSAS.

DOING a real estate appraisal for HUD, the appraiser is supposed to be looking at the roofs condition, for abnormal foundation movement, for missing handrails, 60 amp electrical services, etc, etc.

Taking a real estate LISTING, the realtor IF he/she is doing their due diligence should be looking for similar conditions (most obviously don’t).

Because of these little life NUANCES, the other groups manage to talk legislators into EXCLUDING them from the HI laws.

NOW … Look at those groups LAWS and see if WE’RE excluded.

I thought the language of the Kansas home inspection law was screwed up again and had to go back through the House and the Senate. Am I missing something?

The language is still screwed up…but no one felt it worthy to bring up to the AG. :roll:

Than the law cannot be legally enforced. It will diffidently give the lawyers more work if it is not changed.

I live and work on the border of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas and have no intention at all of ever applying for a Kansas license.

If the law is not rewritten, neither does an inspector need to that lives in Kansas.

Ok. Let’s see if I can explain this. You can also see all of the languages of these bills at www.accesskansas.org

HB 2315 was introduced, discussed, and voted into play by the Kansas legislature in May of 2008. In June, they found out many provisions of the bill were unconstituitional. (I guess the legislators no nothing about laws). So in the fall of 2008, someone wrote and introduced HB 2260. That was tossed around several committees, voted, revised, and finally approved in May of 2009. Some revisions were even made on the senate floor the day it was voted into play. SB 329 was created to kill HB 2215. HB 2260 was signed by the then Governor Sebilius, who three days later resigned her position to go to Washington. SB 329 has never been voted on. So, as of now, both HB 2315 and HB 2260 are in play. There are several different dates, rules, laws in play that no one knows what to do. The best to do right now is nothing. Since there have been standard(s) of practice meetings, I will have to have different inspection reports for Missouri and Kansas.

Note that the board and it’s committee members are not communicating in any way with other inspectors in this state. It is a complete takeover of our industry in Kansas.