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2018-20 Fee Review Consultation
** Consultation: 2018-2020 Home Inspectors Fee Changes **
This is an overview of our 2018-2020 fee review for your sector. If you want more detailed information about any of the content below, please read this comprehensive document about the fee review process. View our supplemental information about the fee review here. *
Introduction
Consumer Protection BC is an independent, self-funded, not-for-profit organization. Government has tasked us with regulating and licensing your sector. We have legal authority to set your licensing fees and other charges. In doing so, we are required by law to recover our costs, to consult with you and to provide at least ninety (90) days’ notice prior to changing or introducing new fees.
****What is happening ****
We are in the process of setting your licensing fees for 2018-2020. Following a review of our costs and forecasted revenues for the next three years, we are proposing to change your licensing fees. To sustain and improve the oversight of your sector and recover costs, we are consulting on the following proposed licensing fee increases and other fee changes for 2018 – 2020:
- Annual 25% increases for licence renewal fees
- Initial 36% increase for new licence fees, and 25% increase for 2019 and 2020.
- Annual 2% increases for other charges for 2018 through to 2020.
- Fees for replacement licenses, late licence renewal, and association accreditation have been eliminated.
Home Inspectors
Fee Type
**Current **
Fee
Proposed
Fees
Apr. 1, 2018
Proposed Fees
Apr. 1, 2019
Proposed Fees
Apr. 1, 2020
New licence
$525
$713
$891
$1114
Renewal licence*
$525
$656
$820
$1025
- For more information about changes to the structure of licence renewals, effective April 1, 2018, please read the information below.
For a full listing of all proposed fee changes for your sector, please review the draft Fee Schedule, available here.
Why are fees changing?
Your licensing fees pay for the direct costs of regulating your sector, such as approvals of practical trainers and evaluators and educational providers, licensing, compliance inspections, complaint handling and enforcement activities, as well as indirect costs like communications, stakeholder relations, IT, finance and accounting, office rent, etc. Every effort is made to control and manage the cost of regulating your sector. However, with recent changes to the law and related shifts in our costs, some increases to licensing fees are unavoidable. In some cases, cost increases are consistent with inflation, in other cases increases are based on specific and unique factors related to a sector (for example, changes to the law that result in new regulatory requirements).
Consumer Protection BC’s costs for licensing and regulating your sector have increased significantly since 2015. Changes to the law, which came into effect on September 1, 2016, expanded our responsibilities for overseeing your sector, as we took on responsibility for administering new and expanded requirements for both new and existing home inspectors. Therefore, we are proposing annual 25% increases for licence fees and a 2% increase for other charges for 2018 through to 2020, with the goal of achieving cost recovery by 2020. As we move toward achieving cost recovery for your sector we will continue to asses our costs, including the impact any future changes to the law may have on our costs and therefore licensing fees. Under a scenario where additional fee changes are required, we will consult with you prior to making any changes.
Examples of Consumer Protection BC’s responsibilities for new and expanded requirements for home inspectors include
- Assessing qualifications (educational, practical training and assessment requirements) for new home inspector applicants;
- Administering new and expanded requirements for existing home inspector licensees (e.g. expanded requirements for home inspector contracts with consumers and inspection reports);
- Assuming responsibility for all consumer inquiries and complaints for your sector (a function previously shared with the home inspector associations); and
- Continued involvement in government’s ongoing efforts to develop a single BC Scope of Practice for home inspectors as well as a streamlined credentialing model for aspiring home inspectors.
You will also notice a new structure for licence renewal fees, effective April 1, 2018 for home inspectors. You will pay a lower fee if you renew your licence at least two (2) weeks before it expires. This means that you will pay less if you renew your licence at least two weeks prior to your licence expiry, starting with 2018 licence renewals.
We will also no longer be charging late fees. If you don’t renew your licence by its expiry date, you will need to submit a new licence application, which costs more money.
The purpose of these changes is to encourage you to renew your licence before its expiry date. This will create efficiencies when we process licence renewals.
How are fees determined?
Consumer Protection BC operates on a cost recovery basis. As such, costs to licence and regulate seven different industries and provide general consumer protection are primarily covered by the fees that are collected through licensing.
In setting these fees, we allocate costs to each licensed sector using a number of factors to determine the sector’s share of the overall costs for us to operate. The factors that determine a sector’s share of our costs are broken down by each functional area of our organization. Once these costs of are determined for each licensed sector, a fee schedule is developed so that projected revenues from each sector closely match our costs to regulate each sector.
**What do fees pay for? **
Your licence fees pay for our regulatory and consumer protection activities. We are mandated to carry out this work under BC’s various consumer protection laws.
After the consultation closes on October 31 and we have assessed your feedback, we will give you 90 days’ notice prior to any fee changes.
*This document provides you with an overview of our 2018-2020 fee review process for your sector. If you want more detailed information, please read this comprehensive document about the fee review process. *