Kansas Home Inspection Bill-2315
As you know in [FONT=Tahoma]2008 an **unwanted and unneeded piece of legislation **(Bill-2315) was **pushed onto home inspectors **in Kansas. It seems to have been PUSHED or mostly promoted and walked through by KAR (the Kansas Realtors Association), **Luke Bell **(the KAR lobbyist) and **Jeff Barnes **(a home inspector from ASHI in Wichita). As you will remember *Luke Bell kept telling legislators about all the problems with home inspectors in Kansas *(yet the BBB, the state AG’s office of consumer complaints, the investigative report done by Paul Wenske at the Kansas City Star, and letters from Nancy Seats - the President of the nationwide consumer activist group HADD - ALL indicated that Bells statements were untrue and that we had problems like any small businesses BUT our complaints over a 3 year period were LESS than groups like Florists). As many inspectors also remember, **Jeff Barnes **has told us at various home inspection meetings or in his writings of letter or magazine articles that the **Commerce Committee **hearing the Bill had told Jeff THEY wanted to see a Bill enacted on Home Inspectors, and if we did not PUSH something onto ourselves - **THE Committee **would probably take the 1st thing coming down the track from someone else and push it through. That sort of thought terrified a lot of our grown men and they reluctantly went along with HB-2315 (that it seems Luke Bell and Jeff Barnes mostly wrote or developed).
As you know there are 3 National Home Inspector Associations (NAHI, ASHI & iNACHI) and 2 Kansas State Home Inspector Associations (KARCI & KAREI). Although members from all groups called or wrote legislators and attended public hearings if they were aware of them - HB-2315 itself **HAD NO **input or joint committee of ALL inspection groups writing it except for apparently the **REALTORS & Jeff Barnes **(A member of ASHI in Wichita / Past Pres of KAREI - mostly ASHI members). In talking to the Officers and Directors of the local NAHI, iNACHI, unaffiliated inspectors and even the long-time Kansas City ASHI members or leaders **NONE **were contacted or invloved in any committee meeting or drafting of the Bill - EXCEPT for possibly an ASHI member / home inspection training school owner from Leavenworth Kansas (Tom Lauhon).
Imagine - Enacting a legislative Bill that influences **ALL **car manufacturers but only having input or participation from 1 car dealer. AMAZING. Why weren’t the other car manufacturers involved - SIMPLE / they weren’t in favor of the Bill, saw no need for it, and opposed it. So lets leave them out in left field - Then later wonder why they’re not getting behind this and **SUPPORTING **the Bill.
What was the need for the Bill - Where did it come from?? 2 primary sources: #1 - The NAR (Realtors across the Nation) have made getting home inspectors licensed a part of their own Annual Legislative Goals for the past 7 years (it helps the shift liability off themselves and the seller if anything goes wrong OR there is a failure to disclose known defects by parties in the transaction). #2 - By one of the large National home inspection associations and their own members (they want to control the legislation and stack the Home Inspection Boards with their people so they can control the state laws, etc). #3 - Inspectors that are weak or at the low end of the spectrum on their fees (they think a license helps give credibility AND helps throw up a FENCE to keep new inspectors out of the industry - FENCE ME IN / FENCE THEM OUT - BUT done legally by the State).
This Bill has had many of its sections declared either unenforceable or unconstitutional ??? by the Kansas Attorney Generals Office.
It apparently can’t be enforced in its current state. I have attended both of the 2 KHIRB (Kansas Home Inspection Review Board) meetings of the Kansas Commissioners and observed the Board in Action. Several committees have been formed by the Kansas Commissioners to shape or try and straighten out this horribly written and onerous Bill (for the record this Bill is being referred to in many **NATIONAL **home inspection circles as a Role Model of **THE WORST HOME INSPECTION BILL **in the country).
2 committees have been formed (SOP & Education) but members of each say neither has had a meeting either in person OR by conference calls OR by other means, yet the BILL has gotten redrafted or rewritten and is going back to the COMMITTEE. I’m starting to wonder who is doing all this work since it’s NOT the group members of the KHIRB.
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SEVERAL** Members of the Kansas Senate Committee asked last year - “Where is the Need for Legislation” - **look at several of the attached documents and I think you can figure it out yourself. **You’ve got 1 HUGE profession that works off commissions, trying to control **OR **shift liability off themselves to a VERY SMALL profession by using their political clout and $$$$$$$$$$$$$ to influence legislation. In most businesses the Justice Department would be all over this in a heartbeat if it was generally known (like MS / Bill Gates, etc).
Just personal thoughts.[/FONT]