Federal Bill Introduced - Hb 4776

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

A representative of Congress has introduced this bill in December of 2007.

On the surface, it looks like much ado about nothing.

So, I asked myself why ASHI is pushing it.

No reason at all, as the bill does nothing but inform consumers that an inspection is voluntary.

So… what is my concern?

Well, the bill should be amended so as to NEVER recommend one inspector or inspection association over another. I see this as an opportunity for more ASHI propoganda.

My advice: get involved and seek an amendment to never allow association or industry bias. Period. See if ASHI backs the amendments.

Wanna bet?

Here’s the bill’s text:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-4776

2

The Bill seems fine. I personally support it. It will increase public awareness.

ASHI has been hard at work for 32 years. In those 32 years they have succeeded in making membership in ASHI mandatory in the following number of states and provinces: ZERO.

Let’s make a new rule, let’s not credit or blame ASHI for stuff that doesn’t even reference them.

You’re paranoid Joe.

3

Nick,

Sitting in your mountain retreat…far from the blood, guts and dirt of the battles taking place in the local legislative arena…has found you contently consuming the same mind numbing pablum that ASHI has fed the real estate industry.

Come to Jefferson City and sit with me as real estate brokers and ASHI presidents are paraded before the committee, with their lobbyists, to support legislation that creates “licensing board” seats that they have been promised that will autonomously determine the qualifications for home inspectors.

You will not find the word “ASHI” written on it…for they must cleverly conceal it behind “coalitions” they form to disguise themselves…but you will certainly recognize the handwriting.

Joe is not paranoid. You are simply falling asleep at the wheel.

This is a national ASHI effort…

Why don’t we have one to counter it?

4

But they’ve done that for years and where has a coalition succeeded, and what do you think they are trying to succeed at?

Face facts. No offense to anyone in particular, but ASHI inspectors are morons. They keep pushing through minimum standard licensing that opens the gates and lets everyone into our profession. Now one could argue that they really aren’t morons, that they simply made a few mistakes, and should stop. ASHI’s own lobbyist made such an argument. And I don’t really like to call anyone a moron. But they keep doing it!.. even after they obliterate their own association with their own legislation in state after state… that really is moronic.

ASHI has but one member benefit (other than a $5 discount on some magazine)… a bogus, come-only-with-cash, no entrance requirements whatsoever, “everyone passes” credential. And licensing replaces that one benefit with a new credential… a state issued license. At which point we all go back to square one, fully licensed, and it becomes nothing but an all-out marketing race. Let them continue to hand the entire industry to InterNACHI on a silver platter with their stupid legislation. We’re happy to take it.

5

P.S. I’ll be happy to come to Jefferson City with you. When?

6

Anyway, read this Bill and tell me why I shouldn’t be thrilled with it.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-4776

7

I think we kicked the life out of HB 2057 this year, so next year…be ready.

8

Okay…

How does ASHI…the only national association presently meeting with and lobbying for the authors of this bill…presently “educate” people on how to select a home inspector?

Did you see who the “target group” is? It is the same target group of their branding efforts…but this time, they get Uncle Sam to foot the bill for them.

This is simply an act of expanding their present “branding” efforts through the U.S. congress.

9

Here is a test for you, Nick…and a personal challenge.

If this is NOT an ASHI measure, as you have said, then ASHI will be anxious and enthusiastic in garnering NACHI’s support for this bill to add to theirs. To do so, they will be pleased to offer you…at the national level…the same voice at the same table that their Executive Board has in this lobbying effort.

By doing so, you will ensure that it will not be strictly “ASHI inspectors” that these counselors will be referring. You will ensure that it is not an extension of the ASHI branding effort that is appears to be.

If you are right and I am wrong, you will have no trouble at all participating with them at the same level. This will be good for InterNACHI and will probably afford the greatest benefit to its members ever realized.

Especially if we had recognition of our association at the national level…we would have an easier time competing for the same recognition at the state level.

But if I am right, ASHI will resist sharing any part of this with you. They will attempt to keep you from the table and to keep you distanced from the communications going on between them and the lobbyists for this bill.

What do you say? Do you accept this challenge?

10

You’re assuming that I want a seat at a table where ASHI is pushing legislation that helps “to educate housing counselors on how to advise consumers how to locate, interview, and select a professional home inspector, and on how consumers may independently locate, interview, and select a professional home inspector.” I don’t. I might queer the deal. I want ASHI to succeed. Let them push for a Bill that ends up giving InterNACHI all the work in the country.

We all know that ASHI is a known no-entrance requirement diploma mill with a “just give us your credit card number and shazam” 30 second, online application http://www.homeinspector.org/join/application/default.aspx but let’s look at their so called “full” members. They are not much better…

Full members need only do a certain number of unqualified inspections (correctly or incorrectly) without supervision. All they have to do is submit a few sample reports to show that the reporting system they used complies with SOP. Well, ALL reporting systems and reporting forms these days comply with SOP, so this requirement means NOTHING. Worse, it harms consumers.

Second, they have to pass the “everyone passes,” 92% pass-rate NHIE, an exam that has its answers sold on eBay for $15. An easy memory test basically. So this requirement means NOTHING.

Third, they have to pass an ethics exam that has a 100% pass-rate. Unethical inspectors score perfectly because they give the right answers. So this requirement means NOTHING.

These facts are easily verifiable.

Every now and then ASHI succeeds in tricking some legislator into mentioning their diploma mill association in an initial proposal and even then it usually just mentions their SOP or something harmless. Georgia and Washington orignally referenced ASHI’s SOP in their legislation. I sent every legislator a document that caused the legislators in both states instantly delete all reference to ASHI from those Bills and today those Bills have all references to ASHI removed from them. There is no proposed legislation in N. America that mentions ASHI.

I could do the same with this Bill, but guess what… the legislator already did it. Despite all ASHI’s lobbyist’s efforts… ASHI is gone. Worse for ASHI, the legislation specifically says “associationS” plural and in essence, pushes InterNACHI by encouraging consumers to check www.nachi.org/rigorous2006.htm and to avoid diploma mills like ASHI.

By Tuesday, I’ll post the document I’ve been using to wipe ASHI out in state after state. I’ll post it here. The document is a picture BTW. You all can then copy it and also send it to any agent that unconscionably violates his/her fiduciary duty to his/her client by steering their poor client to a diploma mill inspector.

Anyway, all legislation helps InterNACHI and harms ASHI even if it isn’t adopted because the more attention drawn to their total lack of requirements, the better for InterNACHI. The problem is that legislation (other than this Federal Bill) generally harms all existing inspectors… it just harms them all evenly. This Bill is one that will help inspectors.

11

Nick,

As you are very well aware…legislation in its embryonic form (as this bill presently is at the first step in it’s journey) rarely takes on the appearance of the final law.

First, you are too experienced and intelligent to take comfort in the use of the plural…“associations”…knowing that ASHI is elbowing its way into the conversation that will dictate the way the final bill reads. Many state bills began with the same language…even the recent Missouri HB 2057…only to be later modified to specifically exclude NACHI from its previously offered grandfathering clause.

Second, waiting until ASHI has successfully arranged federal funding for the widespread continuation of its branding campaign would not be a good time to counter. You’d be pissing in a hurricane.

As Joe pointed out, this bill has the appearance (presently) of being something good…but if only one of the national associations participate in its development and birth…it will be as one-sided as everything else that ASHI has produced.

We should be at the table representing our membership along with ASHI if, for no other reason, to keep it honest and above board.

Again…if ASHI has honorable intentions, they will welcome the support.

They lost $400,000 in annual dues in 2007 with the loss of 1,000 members. Federal dollars supplementing their branding efforts allows them to continue, business as usual, without raising their dues.

12

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Yea right nick needs to be there to keep it honest
and above board.:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
He can’t be honest, and above board with his own paying members, or the public that he markets certified inspectors to, ya think hes gonna be any different with the government :roll: :roll: :roll:

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13

Jim,

All legislation so far has moved in the opposite direction than you describe. Some legislation starts out a bit pro-ASHI but then quickly moves to anti-ASHI or at least association-neutral. No legislation ever went the other direction.

The reason is because of truth. The truth is (as I delineate in post #10) that ASHI is the text book definition of a diploma mill. Zero entrance requirements and meaningless full member requirements.

Anyone is capable of verifying this… and in the case of legislators, they do. And that is why legislation quickly distances itself from ASHI everywhere we look.

This Bill starts out not only association-neutral, but anti-ASHI and pro-InterNACHI. It can’t get much better for us. I love it.

14

Sometimes I think you feel that the absence of the word “ASHI” in a licensing bill equates to the absence of their agenda. What do you call a bill, like the one passed by the House in Kansas, that creates an autonomous board whose unnamed members (all promised to ASHI presidents by the politicians who they aided in pushing the bill) will determine the qualifications for licensing?

If ASHI’s intentions are honorable and for the good of the profession, they would welcome NACHI’s support and assistance in getting this measure to pass.

Having lost 1,000 dues paying members…in a depressed market…with members already condemning the leadership for the money wasted in consultants and committees…it is impossible for me to believe that ASHI would hire an expensive Washington D.C. lobbyist as they did to push a bill “for the good of all home inspectors”.

These vermin do not deserve the trust you apparently have in them, Nick.

15

You have me pegged in one way. If I meet a total stranger, by default, I trust him/her and find something good in them.

Joe Farsetta says the difference between he and I is that he sees the glass 1/2 empty and I see it 1/2 full. Some truth to that I guess. And some problems with both those ways of looking at things.

16

P.S. I’d post that PIC sooner but it is at the office and I won’t be in until Tues. Paige bought a house today and guess who she insists on inspecting it on Monday? :roll: I’m taking Kenton Shepard as reinforcement.

17

Your way of looking at things is great at growing a business…as you have proven.

Your optimism and accessibility has been your gift to all members who have enjoyed the benefits of membership with this association. Without it, we would not be nearly as significant to the industry as we are today. It’s a part of your genius.

But your soldiers cannot afford that luxury.

18

ASHI is killing itself with its own legislation…without membership benefits they are fast making their association useless to inspectors… hence the continual drop in their numbers. Woodrow Wilson once said “Never murder a man who is committing suicide.”

19

But it never hurts to make sure the rope is short enough.

20

I guess ASHI is posturing with the “statesman” image in hopes it gives them
the stature they are seeking. Much like NAHI tried to do with the ASTM thingy.

The only other option they would have is to start providing actual benefits to their
members and then they would appear to be copying InterNACHI, and that
would be an admission… that InterNACHI is already doing it better.

Perhaps as we see so many states taking on more inspection regulation, we
are coming to realize that all the catastrophic prediction of doom have not
come true. I live in Texas and the law is not that big a deal. It does not
bother me. It’s like driving a car, you begin to appreciate your fellow driver
who drives in such a way to keep everyone safe. Some need the law on the
highway, and some do it the right thing because they care.

God gave man the law. He said those who walk in love will fulfill
the moral law automatically. The law make nothing perfect, but serves as a
school teacher until something greater can mature within the heart.