Can/csa-a770

OntarioACHI were contacted yesterday by the CSA to inform us that CAN/CSA-A770 expected to go on sale today.

It will be available from http://shop.csa.ca/

They expect the price to be “competitive” when compared to other standards, and will be a"living" document that will use feedback from the profession to improve/modify those standards in line with the usual standards improvement process.

More as we get it.

http://shop.csa.ca/en/canada/structures/cancsa-a770-16/invt/27039452016

Price CAD $50.00 Bottom of Form

Overview
Home inspection is a critical element in helping consumers understand the condition of their home, but improper home inspections can lead to serious safety and financial risks for home buyers and increased pressure for home inspectors.

There can be a high degree of variation in home inspection practices across associations and jurisdictions. This makes it difficult for home inspectors to demonstrate that their services are thorough and add value to their customers, while customers face greater uncertainty as to whether their homes have been properly inspected. Part of why these issues exist is because there hasn’t been a consistent set of requirements for a proper home inspection.

Introducing CSA A770 Home Inspection – a first-of-its kind standard developed through the collaboration of home inspectors, regulators, consumer agencies, and various technical specialists, that provides guidance on the minimum requirements for a proper home inspection.

CSA A770 establishes key systems and components that need to be inspected in and around the home, and outlines general inspection methods and minimum reporting requirements for inspectors to follow.

CSA A770 aims to help foster increased consistency in home inspection practices, leading to improved service quality and consumer protection.

Seems strange to me they would put this on Sale with out those in the industry getting a copy .
With email this could be accomplished and little expense .

I do not think it is a law yet

The provinces have not adopted the standard yet. CSA is a for profit company so they need to get it out so they can start getting their money back for it. I will be waiting to purchase a copy until I am told I have to by the Alberta government.

About CSA Group
CSA Group is an independent, not-for-profit membership association dedicated to safety, social good and sustainability. Its knowledge and expertise encompass standards development; training and advisory solutions; global testing and certification services across key business areas including hazardous location and industrial, transportation, plumbing and construction, medical, safety and technology, appliances and gas, alternative energy, lighting and sustainability; as well as consumer product evaluation services. The CSA certification mark appears on billions of products worldwide. For more information about CSA Group visit www.csagroup.org.
SOURCE CSA Group

They are not for profit but they are not not for revenue :slight_smile: Like building codes and builders, they want every inspector to buy a copy. I just ordered a copy, if I like it I will use it. My SOP statement will only need to say home inspections are done to CSA standard A770. Maybe some additional details on what I do that meets the standard in my own words. Simple.

http://www.thewhig.com/2016/03/10/legislature-needs-to-back-home-inspector-bill

On Monday, Feb. 22, MPP Han Dong, Liberal member for Trinity-Spadia, introduced Bill 165, a private member’s bill to license home inspectors in Ontario. (www.ontla.on.ca, click Bills and Legislation, then click box No. 165). He is to be congratulated for his efforts here and I have researched that he spoke to two of the three major Ontario home inspection associations in his preparation. He wisely kept them out of his bill submission.
Dong appears to have used the document preparation platform available online at www.ontario.ca/laws/stature/12d08, which is a boilerplate format for most of the Designated Administrative Authority-driven regulations used by the government. There are numerous similarities and it appears to have been “home inspectorized” for his bill submission.
This has caused some considerable conversation within the real estate, home inspection and insurance industry that “something has finally begun.” To state that legislation has started and passed first reading, yes. However, it does not, in its current form, have a serious chance of ever becoming legislation. In fact, it’s very unlikely. In conversation with two opposition MPPs, Jim McDonell, who represents Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry for the Conservatives, and Monique Taylor, NDP MPP for Hamilton Mountain, McDonell stated that the chance of a private member’s bill ever becoming legislation is less than three per cent and only if the governing Liberal party backs it, as it has the majority in the house. Taylor expressed similar opinions with respect to a private member’s bill.
David Orazietti, Government and Consumer Services minister, called me on Thursday, Feb. 25, and he would only commit to his mandate, which is to follow Premier Kathleen Wynne’s request back in 2014 to proceed with legislation. He further stated that he expected the ministry’s bill on home inspection licensing to be done “by the end of this year.”
The Liberal government has spent well into six figures on consultants and in 2013 brought in 16 professionals who are versed on this industry to sit on his advisory board, but they were forced to pay their own expenses, estimated to be in excess of $75,000. In late 2013, they provided Minister Orazietti’s office with an excellent document that outlines how to complete this long-overdue legislation. There is something drastically wrong here; Dong was able to produce his legislative submission in probably less than a month.
It is time that the entire legislature – all parties – supports Dong in his submission. Get it through the committees and final reading now. I have spoken to a number of opposition MPPs’ offices from both parties and they all support this legislation. It’s time for Minister Orazietti to support his own party member; put the backing of the Liberal party into this legislation.
Every prospective home buyer in Ontario, who is making the largest single purchase most families make in a lifetime, needs to know they can have a professional, “provincially licensed” home inspector guide them through this portion of their home purchase. They deserve nothing less.
Cam Allen’s “Ask the Inspector” column appears every week in The Kingston Whig-Standard.

You are also required to have the SOP available to your clients. At 50 bucks a pop that is going to get fairly expensive. Unless you can get CSA to give you the right to share it that is. :roll:

Stick it on pirate bay that will fix e’m

Why? If a manufacturer puts a CSA sticker on light switch are the technical specifications printed on the package?

A statement I inspect to the CSA standard is going to save me paper :slight_smile:
If clients want to see the CSA standard they are free to buy their own.
If I decide to use it I will modify my report to follow their structure.
Anyway it is not a requirement anywhere (yet). We will be dealing with that after we had a chance to look at it. New broom in the AB legislature. Meeting coming up Greg.

There are a number of issue I see here, having purchased and read the standard top-to-bottom… My comments are extensive and I’ve put my full thoughts here…CSA-A770 Home Inspection Standard

Len - thanks for the feedback, albeit your personal opinion. It is certainly BANG on.

I certainly view the CSA A-770 Standard as a complete “mock” for the large part of what already exist in the marketplace that was done by home inspection associations.

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Len,/ Claude ,Have you any thoughts as to what those in the industry should do , And who should inspectors send their thought/Ideas too…

Thanks … Roy

All industries in all sectors can learn much about how to deal with unwanted regulation from Canada’s cable TV industry.

My personal POV…the issue I see is since CSA has now set the bar, it’s most likely if not almost certainty that the legal system will use it as the benchmark for home inspection disputes.

Although it’s at this point NOT technically mandated, it will likely be just a short matter of time before it becomes included as part of home inspection licensing regulations. Both BC and Alberta have tried to work towards “one unified” standard with the recognized bodies. That pretty much failed. The Ontario Panel Report also seemed to favor that approach.

Again as we know the infighting over which inspection standard was the best only fueled this CSA project to what we now see as now taking on the CAN/CSA standard to the level of a recognized “National” standard. So as I have indicated it’s just a matter of time.

Certainly what we now see as the CSA Standard is a lot more in line with what we do as home inspectors. So it could have been much worse compared to where the initial first draft started from, and where the feedback inundated the CSA review panel.

Personally, I don’t think that much can be done at this point to see any modifications by CSA. It’s likely going to be around for years.

Thanks Claude

I spoke to Paul Gulletson and his view was very positive. He saw this initial release of the standard as a living document, and realised that it is likely to be a process improvement that get’s it to a position where all the inconsistencies are out.

I personally feel that it is a really good document, albeit it has some issues as identified.

I have another problem with it as well. I immediately downloaded my purchased copy onto my home network, and I have access to that on my Inspection tablet and PC via a VPN, This is so I can refer to it when I’m out on inspections my Reporting software cannot have large tracts of the document for client information because of the copyright issues. So I am already breaking the law because at the bottom of each page it says I can’t have the document on a network (I put all my documents on a RAID 10 Mirrored/Striped NAS) and I can’t access it across a network (VPN)

I’ve asked for a ruling from the CSA on this area. Otherwise the Standard is bloody useless to us in the field. I’ve suggested the Copyright statement should state what most other copyright statements say in different wording. “Personal use, no sharing”

Roy, as Claude says, I don’t think that we are going to make this Standard “Go Away” but I am collating a list of suggested improvements to the document as I play with it to create templates for the various software out there.

I am quite happy to act as a central repository for these suggestions. If need be I’ll create a public section on the Web where people can identify the problems they are having in the field and we can then present these, as united front, to the CSA to be incorporated in the next release.

The mechanism is still there on the CHIA website, all we need to do is open it up to individual inspectors instead of it’s current restrictions to Association reps only. I thought about asking Nick if he could open up another forum here, but as there are a number of players who will not come here regardless of what the topic is, it might be best on an independent Canadian service.

It would need to have some volunteers to moderate the content to ensure there are no duplicate suggestions or disparaging remarks. I can’t do it as I’ve got my hands full with other voluntary efforts, :smiley: but I don’t mind setting it up.

What do you think?

Len - count me in if I can be of help!
Cheers…Claude

Set up a Facebook group with feeds on each chapter and sections that way all info stays in the correct area.