PHIC scam, InterNACHI's PA Compliance

UPDATE August 2008: InterNACHI sues PHIC and Joe Kelly yet again.

UPDATE October 2007: Association of REALTORs publishes "InterNACHI in Compliance" full page article.

UPDATE August 2007: InterNACHI sues PHIC again.

UPDATE January 2006: Court overrules PHIC and orders them to respond.

UPDATE August 23, 2005: PHIC gets hit with Dragonetti Action.

UPDATE July 20, 2005: PHIC runs away from InterNACHI in court.

UPDATE July 1, 2005: Judge strikes down PHIC.

PHIC's scam and InterNACHI's PA Compliance
by Nick Gromicko

For some time there has been a scam being perpetrated on consumers and home inspectors. The scam was set up by two ASHI members Joe Kelly and Jack Milne. In fact, PHIC is nearly all ASHI. Click here to see their membership's association affiliation. Also check out http://tristateashi.org/newsletter205/n6.html Then use your back button to return. Jack and Joe are carpetbaggers (from out-of-state associations).

Now don't get me wrong, this is not an ASHI-bashing article. I like ASHI. ASHI and InterNACHI generally agree on all issues with respect to the home inspection industry, in spite of our few disagreements being widely over publicized. And with one major exception, that being the dumping issue (see * below) that results in all home inspectors being underpaid, I have very few problems with ASHI.

*ASHI Dumping: ASHI allows unqualified people in our industry by permitting them to join as "candidates" with no requirements other than a $$$. Read: http://www.ashi.org/inspectors/join/candidate_application1.htm ASHI is a diploma mill. As if this isn't bad enough, ASHI then encourages those candidates to go out and do 250 unqualified inspections to become full members. This of course is bad for consumers, but it has a horrible consequence to our industry. You see these candidates in an effort to get their 250 inspections in, drop their prices, which makes it difficult for existing home inspectors to raise their prices. Home inspectors charge far too little for their services but not because we are stupid, but because of ASHI dumping cheap-charging, desperate to get thier inspections in, unqualified candidates into our markets. Click here to view InterNACHI's entrance and membership requirements. ASHI's come only with cash candidacy program is nothing short of a diploma mill.

Having voiced my major complaint with ASHI (sorry, I couldn't help myself), and having declared that I like ASHI and think they are a fine association overall, let's move on to this PHIC/Joe Kelly scam.

PHIC is a fake organization with a fake website. I use the word "fake" for two reasons:

    1. PHIC is fake because PHIC stands for Pennsylvania Home Inspectors Coalition. PHIC is not a "coalition" at all for the following reasons:

a. You cannot have a coalition with only two local ASHI chapters and one NAHI chapter.
b. You cannot have a coalition when there are no non-ASHI/NAHI members as members.
c. You cannot have a coalition when you only have a handful of members.
d. You cannot have a coalition when you represent less than 1% of the inspectors in the state.
e. You cannot have a coalition when you don't include the eight other national associations that qualify in PA.
f. You cannot have a coalition without the world's, the country's and the state's largest association, InterNACHI... with 591 InterNACHI members in PA alone.

2. PHIC is fake because it lies on it's website.

PHIC says on it's website quote "National Home Inspection Organizations Recognized by PA:" unquote, and of course only lists their own associations. Click here to view a page copied off of PHIC's site. This is a lie. Furthermore the State of Pennsylvania does not "recognize" any associations. Click here to view the actual PA law. In fact PA does not license home inspectors or regulate home inspection associations at all. The PA law makes no mention of PHIC, no mention of ASHI, no mention of NAHI, no mention of InterNACHI, no mention of ramp up fees, no mention of ride-a longs, and no mention of mentoring.

PHIC says on it's website that InterNACHI "is" not PA compliant. This is also a lie. PA's Act 114 does not regulate home inspection associations, nor does it determine compliance, nor does it "recognize" home inspection associations. It merely offers a definition of national home inspection associations.

PHIC bases this statement (lie) on two silly arguments.

a. That InterNACHI refused to respond to their request for information. This is true. We don't recognize PHIC as having any authority in PA. They are a private concern, not a government office. In fact, PHIC is not listed on any PA government website. They are fake. And so it is true, we refused and still refuse to this day to provide this fake organization with any information about InterNACHI.

b. That a court ruled that InterNACHI is not not compliant with ACT 114.   This is a lie. And here are the facts:

1. InterNACHI has yet to be served with any lawsuit. This is why the ruling was "declaratory." InterNACHI wasn't notified or served. InterNACHI was not at this hearing. PHIC's Joe Kelly has demonstrated his ability to dig up all sorts of public documents and post them all over the internet, but to this date has not been able to produce the required "Proof of Service" document that he must provide according to PA law to make this legitimate.

2. Since InterNACHI was never served with this complaint, we never responded and so the hearing, held without InterNACHI present, resulted in a short, meaningless ruling not based on the merits of the case.

3. The judge, suspicious that PHIC did not serve InterNACHI (otherwise we would have answered the complaint) and worried that InterNACHI was not present at the hearing, and doubting that Joe Kelly's explanation for not being able to provide "Proof of Service" wisely made a meaningless declaratory ruling which basically said that InterNACHI wasn't something at one time subsequent . The ruling ended the midnight that very day.  Here is her exact carefully crafted words "InterNACHI was not at the time the home inspection law became effective on December 20, 2001 and has never been subsequent thereto (the date of the declaration)". She also repeated that she made this ruling not on the basis of the evidence but only because of our "failure to file an answer" (an answer to a complaint we were never served with).  Furthermore, she rejected PHIC's request to have InterNACHI shut down. She did not order InterNACHI to do anything nor did she order InterNACHI to stop doing anything. She merely said that for failing to answer a complaint we were never served with, InterNACHI wasn't something once. Even if it were true and valid, which it isn't, it technically says nothing about InterNACHI the very next day. It says nothing about InterNACHI today.   It says nothing about InterNACHI tomorrow. It is intentionally totally meaningless.

4. Two of our PA chapters and our sister InterNACHI (which every member of InterNACHI is a member of) are themselves also national home inspector associations as defined by PA as they are non-profit and have members in more than 10 states.

5. The Pennsylvania Association of REALTORs released a statement warning REALTORs about Jack Milne and his PHIC scam and telling REALTORs to ignore them. Here it is: http://www.nachi.org/par-statement.htm

6. The Pennsylvania Attorneys General's office also rejected both of PHIC's complaint against InterNACHI and dismissed them summarily.

7. Judge Thomas G. Gavin orderd this entire judgement striken. http://www.nachi.org/phicscam2.htm

8. InterNACHI filed a Dragonetti Action agains PHIC to recover damages. http://www.nachi.org/phicservedwithdragonettiaction2005.htm

PHIC's two prong scam:

1. PHIC tries to use false information to trick unsuspecting inspectors into thinking they have to work for Jack Milne and Joe Kelly for free, and even worse... have to pay to work for them for free. PHIC lies to them telling them they have to join PHIC, that they have to pay Jack Milne and Joe Kelly for what they call "mentoring fees", that they have to pay for what they call "ramp up fees", that they have to continue to pay even after they perform the required 100 inspections, and that they have to lease their inspection agreement for $750.00 a year. See PHIC's own website: http://www.phic.info/ramp2.htm. Read it carefully. It's mention of having inspectors work for them for free while all along paying them $51.00 per inspection is a clear violation of Federal Anti-Trust laws. They may try to remove the page or edit it after this article goes out so I have a copy here. Regardless, it clearly reveals their indentured-servitude scam. Many inspectors have been snookered out of their hard earned money already. Follow their money!... right to Jack & Joe.

2. PHIC tries to create a monopoly to the detriment of consumers, REALTORs, inspectors, and homebuyers by pointing local governments to their fake organization and lie-ridden website. Recently, they were nearly successful at locking out InterNACHI members from the City of Reading. The current ordinance has been rewritten to help end the City of Readings unwitting participation in this scam.

PHIC has already snookered fellow inspectors out of their money and tried to lock others out of certain markets, so PHIC can't deny. PHIC is made up of carpetbaggers (out-of-state) organizations that came into our state headquarters to try to displace Pennsylvania inspectors and steal their hard earned money.

"A lie can travel halfway around the world (or at least Pennsylvania) while the truth is putting on its shoes." -Mark Twain

Other Joe Kelly/Jack Milne/PHIC lies:

1. InterNACHI is not non-profit. LIE!

InterNACHI has always been a non-profit organization. InterNACHI did not have income or collect dues until 1998 (just after Al Gore invented the internet). Once we decided to collect dues and go national (with Al's help) we needed a bank account and an entity, so we incorporated the association. Many of the world's largest companies and non-profit organizations started out unincorporated and only incorporated later. Many inspection firms do too. This is not unusual, especially in light of the fact that InterNACHI had no income until it started collecting dues in 1998 (InterNACHI has never been very proficient at collecting money). InterNACHI accepts no outside funds and so we're no "owned" by anyone figuratively. We don't even sell so much as a banner ad on our 88 million hit/year website. InterNACHI did not issue stock (see document link above) and so InterNACHI is not "owned" by anyone literally either. It is the most member-driven trade association that ever was.

Click here to see the Pennsylvania Department of State records showing InterNACHI is non-profit.

2. InterNACHI does not have members in 10 states. LIE!

InterNACHI is the largest home inspection association in PA, the U.S. and the world. In fact InterNACHI is the only home inspection that actually lists its entire membership on an open website for all to see. Other associations use ambiguous geographic searches so no one can ever see of verify their member list. InterNACHI has members in all 50 states, Canada, D.C, the islands, and 30 countries abroad.

Click here to see every English-speaking InterNACHI member.

3. NACH is not the biggest and best home inspection association in the world. I dare, no... I double dare any reader to carefully scroll through the links in:

http://www.nachi.org/whats_new.htm.

InterNACHI is far larger and better than all these other out-of-state (carpetbagger) associations combined.

Thanks for your attention.

P.S. I have written ASHI asking them to expel Joe Kelly and Jack Milne from their otherwise fine association. They are no better than their former fellow ASHI member and cohort Michael Napadow of Nation's Hazard Insurance who snookered our industry for over a million dollars and has been indicted by many state Attorneys General. Scam artists.

http://www.nachi.org/phicscam2.htm

http://www.nachi.org/phicrunslikeagirlfromamouse.htm

http://www.nachi.org/phicservedwithdragonettiaction2005.htm

http://www.nachi.org/nachitaxexempt.htm

http://www.nachi.org/kdka2005.htm

http://noashi.blogspot.com