Home Inspection Legislation

As many of you know, there are now several bills pending in California that concern the Home Inspection Industry.

As we know, there is AB1357 that is to change how a home inspector performs their duties in regards to roof inspection, the bill seeks to limit such. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1357&search_keywords=Home+Inspection

Another bill that was tossed out last year is back again, this would make for somewhat unreasonable inspections for pool barriers this Bill is SB-442 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB442&search_keywords=Home+Inspection

Additionally, I learned today that there is a “2 Year Bill” in regards to the licensing of Home Inspectors. There may be other items now or in near future as it would seem aspects of home inspection have been introduced in bills now several times in recent years.

I remember that one going away last year. Are you just searching for home inspection on the site to find these?
Thanks for updating on this.

Searched to confirm/post yes, but learned of the re-hashed pool barrier effort and 2 year bill to license at a CREIA meeting yesterday. As we don’t have same resource or lobbying here (that I know of) we can keep one another abreast of current goings on.

I’m not worried about Home Inspectors having to point out which of the 7 items are in place. I do that anyway, and any home inspector with a clue should be doing the same.

As for saying home owners should have 2 items, I have mixed feelings.

If there is a good fence, then a 2nd barrier is a waste of time and money.

But things like alarms on doors. I see some houses have that, and technically, it meets the requirements But what if you want to have the doors open on a nice day? The whole point of having patio doors is to open them. While I mark it as meeting the minimum, I never feel good about saying an alarm on the door is good enough.

Great information Tim. Thanks!

Thanks for the update Tim.

This may be some text of interest as well, it was mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago that there was license law in the works.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB717

Interesting. Assembly Member Dababneh represents my neighborhood.

What strikes me as odd though, the bill calls for a license, but zero reference as to what it would take to qualify for a HI license.

I’m guessing that like a lot of bills they leave room to fill in the blanks… couple of weeks ago this newest revision/bill wasn’t there at the state’s website at all, and now the bill reads that it was published 2/15/17… weird. From my recollection, this is the first in over a decade that a push is again occurring, now on a few fronts.

Based on below, I may be exempt anyway… However, I’m thinking as big a market as California is, our industry may need some representation or lobbying and besides what I learned at another org’s event recently, seems as though mums the word.

Thanks again Tim.

Thanks Tim.

And Ian, can you post your list of existing laws in California again? I know you posted it before, but I lost track of that post. It was a good one.

I posted a blog article about some of the home inspection laws here:

The home inspection process is covered under the California Business and Professions Code, Chapters 9.3, sections 7195 through 7199.

The full text of existing laws can be found here:
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&division=3.&title=&part=&chapter=9.3.&article=

There are some other reporting requirements we’ve stumbled on over the years, such as a recent requirement to include something similar to the following

And, as termite inspections and their requirements during a real estate transaction have changed so much, it may be a good idea to note such and limitations in your report.

The report host template allows for a comment in the wood destroying organism section.
All pest inspections are required to be state licensed. I added that to the comment area and note any observations then refer accordingly to a state licensed pest service.

As to State Licensing of home inspectors, I’m surprised it hasn’t been in effect earlier.

Thanks everyone for posting, this is some good information.

Well. It looks like law limiting roof inspections AB 717 and the weird pool inspection law AB 1357 Have passed to an extent. I’ve posted a couple of updates here and know that the other CA association are trying to lobby.

However, I’m wondering, where is Nachi at with this? We’ve 1300 members in Cali? Did or do we have any representation in regards to this?

With you supplying all the information in regards to this, I would say no.

Scot, you’re probably right. FWIW, and as Home Inspection looks to be changed and likely a licensed profession in California soon, I think input from HI Assoc’s is needed to ensure a smooth transition and prevent too much backlash or unintended changes that hurts the public or our profession.

While I realize that licensing creates a lucrative channel for this association and other types of business’s, I think ensuring that a quality service can continue to be provided is of utmost importance, and with letting the Roof, Pool and HI changes pass without input from the largest HI org is a shame. I’m basing some of my thoughts on what I’ve seen from the changes to FL post-licensing.

For me personally, and looking at the verbiage in the HI law, I’m likely already covered, but that wasn’t my axe to grind anyway.

Updates on most of these as they go forward, changes & approvals in different committees, would be nice to have had some input from our industry. It will be interesting to see how many want changes after fact. We shall see!

Would be nice to have had some input from InterNACHI.

CREIA is taking steps (though I’m not sure what steps).