Attention Texas home inspectors! TREC meeting October 8, 2007.

General Inspection Topics Legislation, Licensing, Ethics & Legal Issues
1

Dear fellow inspectors and concerned citizens,

*This is the last chance to have your voice heard. *
*The Inspectors Commitee and I need your presence at this meeting. *
[FONT=Verdana]I ask you to sacrifice one day and make a stand for something that will affect Texas consumers, you, your career, your income and your family from now on.[/FONT]

*The TREC commissioners will meet again on October 8, 2007 at 9:00 am. *
Do you believe the mandated insurance coverage rules will negatively impact in any way, real estate consumers, your profession, livelihood and family?
*I request you take action and join me, clients, family members, friends and my peers in bringing our concerns before the commission. *
The commissioners can, if we are persuasive enough and they choose to, have a final ruling (vote) on this matter before the Attorney General’s review is completed.

  • *As you probably know there is verbiage in our profession’s Occupations Code (see below) that disallows negligence, incompetence, dishonesty and deceit in our profession. *
  • *Any of these acts are already against the laws of our state and a recovery fund is already in place for consumers, to cover these events when they do occur in our profession. *
  • Errors & Omissions and General Liability insurance do not, cannot and will not cover any of the above acts. Nor do they benefit Texas consumers in any way. There is no insurance coverage available on this planet that will cover an inspector or protect the consumer if and when these events occur.
  • Mandating these coverage’s is like saying it is against the law to rob banks but here is some insurance you can purchase just in case you want to make robbing banks your chosen career path. FW
    OCCUPATIONS CODE CHAPTER 1102. REAL ESTATE INSPECTORS

SUBCHAPTER G. PROHIBITED ACTS

*§ 1102.301. NEGLIGENCE OR INCOMPETENCE. *
An inspector may not perform a real estate inspection in a negligent or incompetent manner.

*§ 1102.302. AGREEMENT FOR SPECIFIC REPORT; *
*DISHONESTY. *
An inspector may not:
(1) accept an assignment for real estate inspection if the employment or a fee is contingent on the reporting of:
(A) specific, predetermined condition of the improvements to real property; or
(B) specific findings other than those that the inspector knows to be true when the assignment is accepted; or
*(2) act in a manner or engage in a practice that: *
*(A) is dishonest or fraudulent; or *
(B) involves deceit or misrepresentation.

*§ 1102.305. VIOLATION OF LAW. *
An inspector may not violate this chapter or a rule adopted by the commission.

SUBCHAPTER H. REAL ESTATE INSPECTION RECOVERY FUND

*§ 1102.351. REAL ESTATE INSPECTION RECOVERY FUND. *
The commission shall maintain a real estate inspection recovery fund to reimburse aggrieved persons who suffer actual damages from an inspector’s act in violation of Subchapter G. The inspector must have held a license at the time the act was committed.

In closing I hope to see everyone receiving this in Austin October 8, 2007 at 9:00 am

*Texas Real Estate Commission, **1101 Camino La Costa, **Austin, TX 78752 *Map to TREC](http://www.nachi.org/forum/)Driving Directions to TREC](http://www.nachi.org/forum/) *(512) 459-6544 or 1-800-250-TREC (8732) *8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Monday - Friday

*Please feel free to pass this on to anyone you know that could be impacted by these new rules *

Thanks for taking the time to at least read this and hopefully support my efforts,

BARRY ADAIR Owner-Professional Inspector-Moisture Analyst
TREC # 4563
EDI: EIFS-MA TX # 39
Level I Infrared Thermography
NACHI # 04080595
NAWT # 112156 IC
NTTAREI: Advanced Inspector
PaRR # 14195
TAREI: Advanced Inspector
TDI # 1130204761
Lake Cities Association of REALTORS®

ADAIR INSPECTION
1733 GOLIAD DRIVE
GARLAND, TX 75042-4238

office: (972) 487-5634
mobile: (214) 328-8331
*e-mail: *adairinspex@adairinspection.com](http://www.nachi.org/forum/)
*website: *http://www.adairinspection.com](http://www.nachi.org/forum/)

2

Barry,
TREC has no say so whatsoever in these matters. The legislature passed SB914 and the accompanying House Bill. It is now TREC’s responsibility to implement it, not debate the merits of it. They have no ability to pick and choose which of the bill’s features they want to enforce or not enforce. Showing up at that meeting to complain is a waste of time. I also must say I do not agree with your take on E&O insurance as I believe E&O will most definitely cover negligence, incompetence, etc. If not that then what does it cover? Now, granted, my opinion is strictly based on talking to only 2-3 E&O providers so I may be wrong and would like to hear the other side of the story.

3

The fist law was passed with incorrect verbiage. They added some clarification and
have told inspectors that E&O insurance is what will be required. The verbiage
will be adjusted asap. I know it stinks, but this is what has happened.

It is not debated that the original verbiage needs corrected. That has been
publicly acknowledged.

Some have said that E&O will not provide any relief to the consumer for
a home inspectors mistakes, but only pays for the inspectors legal fees. This
is not true.

I don’t like E&O but until I see a high dollar legal team willing to step forward
and join the fight, then my voice would not add much power to the cause.

Are there any high dollar lawyers willing to take this fight to the higher powers?
That which is done by law must be undone by law, and therefore lawyers.

I can ad a few bucks to my inspections and that will cover the cost. Other
states have the same kind of law and it will not kill most of us to obey it. In
the end it will at least provide one less thing to worry about.

The first time you get zapped with an $75,000 law suite, the policy will not
seem so bad after all. So is the life of a Professional in the great U.S.A.

It’s called the great American turkey shoot… ie… Law Suites… :slight_smile:
Got to love it… it’s still the greatest place on the planet to live, thank God.