Glitch Bill is in! 3 ways to get a Florida Home Inspectors License.

[Jay Schwartz]

Thank you Nick for your comments. There have been MANY who have been a part of the process that need to be thanked.

Fees cannot be raised without legislation. The DBPR cannot increase a fee.

The current status of the financial impact to the Florida taxpayer is in excess of 1 million dollars. The original bill fell into a deficit from the very beginning. The electeds I have spoken to understand that the premise of 3,000 home inspectors and mold inspectors is unrealistic in today's economic times. If there were 3,000, the State would still lose in excess of $500K a year on this bill.

Raising fees any higher would have a negative impact on those seeking licensure.

This is the catch-22 and always has been.

[Doug Edwards]

Jay,
How you doing? Long time. You are exactly right! And all of this was pointed out to those who had a hand in making this law, numerous times over the years. In years past and under a different Governor and his staff this was one of the determining factor in it being either defeated before it got to the point of being made law or was vetoed upon arrival. This has all the earmarks of a political payoff to the determent of the FL citizens / taxpayers.

[Jay Schwartz]

Doug:

Been here the whole time. Doing great. And you?

[Doug Edwards]

Very same, can't complain. Busy but not real busy.

[Nick Gromicko]

I apologize if I offended any GCs. I wasn't trying to. I'm a licensed GC myself. I was only trying to point out that many of us worked furiously to prevent our entire inspection profession from becoming nothing more than one big fat lead generation system for repair contractors.

[Michael J. Meeker]

Nick,
No offense taken here. I appreciate what you do for the home inspection industry even though I do not always agree with everything. I do think more G.C.'s should stand up and be counted and not feel ashamed of all the hard work it took to get their licenses. I think some of the inspectors who complain the most about G.C's should try to succeed by doing a great job and improving themselves instead of badmouthing and trying to hold others back. Here is a tip for those who think G.C.'s will have an unfair advantage. Go get a G.C. License yourself. When will all of this speculation end and when will we know what all of the rules will be?

[Greg Bell]

Hi Michael,

Nothing against you or any of the other GC's. It the system that has me upset not really any individual.

[Michael J. Meeker]

Greg,
No sweat the system has upset me most of my life.

[John Shishilla]

As a FL licensed Residential Contractor(Not General or Building contractor), Accredited Claims Adjuster and home inspector. I think home inspector licensing will help(some).

I see many contractors do things wrong as well as home inspectors, as do the rest of you. In Florida, to do home inspections it is as simple as a flash light and ladder and you are ready to go. These people are the group that give inspectors a bad name. On the other side we have people that call themselves "contractors," Contractor in the state means anyone who does work for money. A contractor could be a drywall contractor or a paint contractor. All of these people that miss represent themselves need to be put out of business. Licensing will only help that and is not a total solution.

If anyone thinks being a contractor (GC, BC or RC) qualifies them to be a home inspector they are sadly mistaken. As a home inspector is not qualified to be a builder. They are in they same field but very different skill sets.

If you are a home inspector and want the credibility or lack of the comes with being a contractor, then look at the requirements and figure out how to full fill them. If you have all of the credentials( including $10k in the bank and good credit) it will take you about a year.

[Steve Taylor]

Good Morning all, Some bad news with respect to wind mitigation inspections: Senator Bennett has caved to special interests (insurance industry lobby) and removed the provision from his bill SB 648 that would have formally recognized licensed home inspectors as authorized to complete the wind mitigation inspection and form. He has also removed reference to the MSFH inspectors. - So it looks like they are out as well. You can view the changes by going to www.flsenate.gov and then put in 648 into the bill tracker at the left side of the page. Once on the bill look for bar code amendment 503278. Click on the PDF of that amendment and go to lines 2004-2006. That amendment would have recognized licensed home inspectors as approved to sign of on wind mits in FS 627.711. Senator Bennett filed the next bar code amendment at 5:00 PM last night. See bar code amendment 834342. Click on the PDF and go to pages 76-77 and look at lines 2141-2204. That amendment removes licensed home inspectors from the list in 627.711 that was in his earlier version of his bill. It also makes several other changes to the requirements. This bill will go before the Senate Community Affairs Committee tomorrow at 8 AM. He was required to have any amendments posted by 5PM last night. It appears that he waited till the last minute to post it so we would not have time to complain and he would not have to defend the change. It is very disappointing how our elected officials can be influenced by special interests- rather that doing the right thing. For those of you that live in Senator Bennett's district, perhaps you could call his office to voice your concern and disappointment with him. This change will limit the choices for the consumer and exclude licensed home inspectors from doing inspections.

[Stephen L. Guardino, CMI]

Why does that not suprise me.
I see he's a contractor? Mmmmmmmmm

[Douglas Wall]

That amendment removes licensed home inspectors from the list in 627.711 that was in his earlier version of his bill. It also makes several other changes to the requirements. This bill will go before the Senate Community Affairs Committee tomorrow at 8 AM.

04/07/10 SENATE CS by Community Affairs; YEAS 10 NAYS 0
Anyone know whats next?

[Steve Taylor]

The bill has two more stops to make. An amendment has been written to put the language back in the bill. The WCEs and the insurance industry lobby are working hard to prevent that language from being put back in the bill. I would suggest that everyone who believes that we should be included in the list of approved inspectors that can complete wind mitigation inspections as noted in FS 627.711 should be calling, emailing, and personally visiting Senator Bennett's office and respectfully ask him to put the language back in the bill and to do the right thing and stand up to the special interests.

[Steve Taylor]

All, HB-713 just passed through its last committee stop with a favorable vote. Representative Workman changed language in the bill to allow contractors who are also home inspectors to offer repairs on homes that they inspect. As you know, this is a direct violation of all professional inspector associations' codes of ethics. This amendment by Rep. Workman effectively creates two sets of rules in the home inspector license- one set of rules for the professional home inspector that abides by industry standard code of ethics and another set of rules for the home inspector/contractor that does not abide by a code of ethics. This amendment will harm our profession and will surely harm the consumer that the law was allegely designed to protect. This amendment will legally sanction contractor/home inspectors to offer loss leader home inspections and then make up the fee on the back end with repair work. This will surely harm professional inspection firms that abide by industry standard ethics principles.

[Curtis M. Vilt]

None of them are NACHI members right ! Right