WA. STATE INSPECTORS (Email update from Mike O'Handley)

[wforsyth]

Originally Posted by wforsyth

Ahhhh...so now we arrive at the crux of the issue. Lewis, I thank you for your service, and while I now understand what the issue is, the other part being anger brought on by the use of percocet which is a well known side effect in some people....look it up...I refuse to enter into anymore discussion regarding it. Your service is honorable to this country and I refuse to dishonor it by picking apart the reasons why you may or may not be choosing to degrade me regularly on this board.

Again, thank you and your brothers and sisters for your service to our country. I hope you enjoy your well earned and well deserved retirement.

This is what I posted, and you can see the response I got. He never lets it go. Period. No matter what I say or do.

[Harold E. Miller]

http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/119225.html

Thanks for the post Stephen. Every time I read something like this I wonder how blown out of proportion the story is...... to make it....a story worth reading. I would love to hear the whole story, or shall we say the real story.

What also gets me is often the stories involve homes riddled with rot, and this is what they are using to support their position on licensing. Huh? ........Inspectors are supposed to be licensed as SPI's according to our attorney generals office.

So all these buyers who had their homes inspected, and later found problems with rot, weren't protected by the SPI licensing laws, so adding a new law to the books will fix the problem?

We already have one law that does not protect consumers, apparently, so why add another set of laws?

Contractors have to be licensed here, yet I find all sorts of contractor induced defects on a regular basis. Licensing did not make them any better as a whole, either.

[Harold E. Miller]

Originally Posted by drowe1

Thanks, Nick
An inspector from Olympia interviewed on NPR yesterday, who is a strong supporter of government oversight, referred to ASHI as a model SOP. It sounds like we need to make the same point you made last year for this round of legislation. It would be great if you could attend one of the hearings. I will attend Burien or Wenatchee. Anyone else? We should have a consistent strategy for addressing the issues.

I think a good strategy is removal of the grandfathering clauses in inspection legislation. I read about this on our board a while back and thought that it was non sense. Then as you think about it more it is a pretty good tactic.

Just think about how much support most inspectors would give to any bill that has no grandfather clause. Probably very little..... for a variety of reasons to include the hassle, cost, and some would actually have to learn something to pass a proficiency tests, etc.

If you are against legislation, that might be a good tactic.

Something to think about.

[James H. Bushart]

Grandfather clauses are the method used by proponents of legislation to impose it upon others and not themselves. Period. There is no other justification for it. Fight it and you have effectively defeated the bill.

[lcapaul]

Originally Posted by jbushart

Grandfather clauses are the method used by proponents of legislation to impose it upon others and not themselves. Period. There is no other justification for it. Fight it and you have effectively defeated the bill.

I could back the elimination of all grandfather clauses, and still support licensing or regulation if the proposal made any sense. The trouble with eliminating ALL Grandfathering would be the immediate elimination of everyone on the business that is being regulated or licensed and an overload on any system that was set up to qualify those being Licensed, I would rather see a time period like maybe 6 months to a year for those with proof of having been in the business at the time the regulation took effect to meet ALL the same requirements as someone just entering the business, although that would likely eliminate any mentoring requirements (who would do the mentoring) and any set number of required Inspections>

Grandfathering of some kind is everywhere, look in your local want ads, you're likely to find jobs that require a College degree "OR" a certain amount of experience or something similar, grandfathering.

You've stated before that licensing make everyone "Equal", there may be "Equal" qualifications, but someone who has been performing Inspections for years to a Nationally Recognized standard such as the NACHI or ASHI SOP's still has all those years of experience. Who would you hire the newby with no inspections or someone with a proven record of Inspection Experience? Newbies fight that problem whether a State is Licensed or not.

[James H. Bushart]

If a law is necessary...and a law is good...it makes no sense that it should not apply to everyone, equally.

A primary example can be found in New Jersey.

A state senator got a bad home inspection and made it his personal business to push through, what was at the time, the toughest HI law in the country. There was a grandfathering clause. The state's very first license wound up being issued to the very same inspector who did the senator's house.

Licensing solves nothing.

[Joseph Burkeson, CMI]

Originally Posted by lcapaul

I could back the elimination of all grandfather clauses, and still support licensing or regulation if the proposal made any sense.

A prerogative that might allow for open honest discussion as opposed one that begins at stalemate with no other options left.

[lcapaul]

Originally Posted by jbushart

If a law is necessary...and a law is good...it makes no sense that it should not apply to everyone, equally.

A primary example can be found in New Jersey.

A state senator got a bad home inspection and made it his personal business to push through, what was at the time, the toughest HI law in the country. There was a grandfathering clause. The state's very first license wound up being issued to the very same inspector who did the senator's house.

Licensing solves nothing.

James, there's a lot more bad inspections being performed than those for State Senators, I guess the view on whether licensing is good or bad depends on which side of the business you're on, Inspector or Client. or whether you've been burned by a pi$$ poor inspector.

I compiled some pretty good cases of poor inspections, right in Washington, I've been saving them for the right time, now is the right time, but now I'm not interested, my Inspection business in Idaho is picking up and I'm back in the renovation and contracting business to a small extent. My Washington Inspections aren't necessary, or at least as much as they were a couple of years ago, so by the end of this month I will probably be Idaho only. trying to do both has been interfering with my fishing and sailing.

Your ideas of Self Regulation are fine, but they don't work, there are to many inspectors who have absolutely no idea of what they are doing, and every time they screw someone they make the whole industry look bad, because the Industry cannot control or regulate them, one pi$$ed off customer with a valid complaint that involves thousands of $$$$ in damages does more harm than 1000 excellent inspections and happy clients.

[Harold E. Miller]

Originally Posted by lcapaul

My Washington Inspections aren't necessary, or at least as much as they were a couple of years ago, so by the end of this month I will probably be Idaho only. trying to do both has been interfering with my fishing and sailing.

.

I agree, the weather is nice and it is boating season. Very hard to even think about inspector legislation, too many distractions.

We spent all last weekend in the San Juan Islands on the boat. Got some big trips coming up.

My fishing is not great, so I have to use a "visa" lure at the market. But it works every time.

Come to think of it the manager at the fuel dock likes our visa card also. He always has a big smile.

[wforsyth]

Unfortunately those who let boating take precedence will be the ones complaining about it a year from now. If we don't act now, we'll be ***ed out. I'm hoping to either attend, or have something prepared that Peter can read for me to represent my position. We all have to put in an effort. Senator Spanel is counting on us not doing anything.

[Dale Rowe]

So I post an idea about how a group can address potential legislation for our businesses in our state, on a thread called "WA State Inspectors, Legislation", and I get a response that insinuates that this is not the appropriate forum for my ideas. Then the same guy posts multiple threads that apparently are to goad someone he doesn't like or respect, or whatever, into a public pissing match that ends up being a huge waste of time for anyone who actually wants to address and discuss the issue at hand; PENDING LEGISLATION IN WASHINGTON STATE.

[wforsyth]

Sad huh? Sorry you were treated so poorly.

[Harold E. Miller]

Originally Posted by drowe1

So I post an idea about how a group can address potential legislation for our businesses in our state, on a thread called "WA State Inspectors, Legislation", and I get a response that insinuates that this is not the appropriate forum for my ideas. Then the same guy posts multiple threads that apparently are to goad someone he doesn't like or respect, or whatever, into a public pissing match that ends up being a huge waste of time for anyone who actually wants to address and discuss the issue at hand; PENDING LEGISLATION IN WASHINGTON STATE.

Dale,
..............WELCOME to the NACHI message board!
Unlike other boards that have NAZI moderators, we have our freedom of speech. Sometimes that speech becomes a little coarse, obnoxius, rude, and/ or vulgar.

I have found the answer to having to wade through all the BS. It is called the "ignore" feature. Works great on those repeat offenders that waste all our time as we try to read the point of the thread.

See how well it works!6/2/07, 9:57 PM
wforsyth This message is hidden because wforsyth is on your ignore list.</SPAN>


It would be nice if more Washington inspectors came here to discuss issues surrounding this legislation, however.... who could take this 3 ring circus very seriously.

BTW what did you think about the idea of removing the grandfathering clause from the inspection legislation?

[lcapaul]

Originally Posted by drowe1

So I post an idea about how a group can address potential legislation for our businesses in our state, on a thread called "WA State Inspectors, Legislation", and I get a response that insinuates that this is not the appropriate forum for my ideas. Then the same guy posts multiple threads that apparently are to goad someone he doesn't like or respect, or whatever, into a public pissing match that ends up being a huge waste of time for anyone who actually wants to address and discuss the issue at hand; PENDING LEGISLATION IN WASHINGTON STATE.

Dale, Just where were you treated poorly, or told that this is not a good forum to discuss this issue, other than you cannot discuss it between Washington Inspectors without interference from outside agitators from both sides.

Like I said, there is no common ground or view on licensing among NACHI Inspectors, how can NACHI then prevent a "Common Stand" to the Sunrise Committee? I encouraged you find like minded Washinton Inspectors and present a united front to the Committtee no matter what side of the issue you are on. Nick and NACHI's job is to help keep ASHI and other Associations from writing legislation favorable only to them, Nick does a good job fighting that, it's great to have him and a 10,000 member Association to keep the legislation Non-Association Friendly, but like Nick has said, the proposed Washington Legislation does not appear to have Association Bias. Nick or NACHI cannot address the Committee with a United or Common Stand, because we as members, have no such thing. To Represent one side of the issue Nick would have to crap on members on the other side.

Organize, discuss it here if you want, that hasn't been highly successful over the past 7 or 8 months, but give it a try if you like. Get Inspectors together, get signatures, present your case to the Committee, and every WA. Politician you can contact.

I apologize for the pi$$ing contest, but it's with a member who by her own admission does not perform home inspections and who feels the constant need to call everyone who disagrees with her liars. But read my posts, I attempt to argue the Isuue of Licensing around the Pissing Contest.

Where in this thread were YOU mistreated? You'll get much the same advice about the difficultly of discussing any Licensing, or any serious matter, here on the NACHI Message Board. E-Mail works much better, contact inspectors you know share your view, use Find an Inspector to locate other NACHI Members in your area or Statewide, organize, discuss, put pressure on the politicians, you won't, regretably accomplish much here.

Here's a question for you Dale, you talk about Cpmmon Ground, What if there were a Statewide meeting of NACHI Members where the Licensing Issue was discussed and a "Common Stand" on the issue was voted on, if that vote went against your beliefs in what was good for YOUR business, would you back it?

[lcapaul]

Originally Posted by hmiller

I agree, the weather is nice and it is boating season. Very hard to even think about inspector legislation, too many distractions.

We spent all last weekend in the San Juan Islands on the boat. Got some big trips coming up.

My fishing is not great, so I have to use a "visa" lure at the market. But it works every time.

Come to think of it the manager at the fuel dock likes our visa card also. He always has a big smile.

Harold, Were the Wild Roses in Bloom? A few years ago on Sucia they were so thick that you could smell them a mile offshore, on the Island itself you could hardly breathe, my favorite is still Patos, especially later in the summer when all the blackberries are out.

We used to spend either Christmas or New Years, sometimes both, up at Sucia, one year we were there an it was snowing snowflakes the size of silver dollars, the sky was lit up from the lights in Bellingham and you could see the snow falling clear out at the mouth of the Bay. Why would I ever give up experiences like that just for work?