1st Kansas Home Inspector Board Meeting

I went to the Kansas Board Meeting in Wichita today.

The 5 Board members, Tom Lauhon and myself were present.

Jeff Barnes has obviously put a lot of effort into trying to get the rules set up and ready to go. The meeting was better organized than one would expect for the 1st time out and he had bundles of paperwork for the Board to review. A lot of work has gone into his presetation.

The Attorney from Wichita was very astute and had quite a few comments or advice that may save us headaches down the road.

The Realtor from KC was well spoken and familiar with our profession. He also seemed level headed and interested in making this work.

Ralph Pimitel from Topeka is an ex-CBO Code Official and has the perspective of both code inspections / new construction and home inspections.

Ron Naab from Garden City Kansas had been playing in a poker tournament in Vegas. Returning from the tournament, his connecting flight in Denver got canceled - so Ron rented a car in Denver and drove all night from Denver to Wichita for the Board meeting. He looked a little tired.

Thats about 560 miles with the fastest way being about 190 miles of interstate and then cross country on 2 lanes the rest of the way.

Oh Yuk … Thats dedication. I’d of stayed in Denver all night.

Just what the board needs. A poker player. Dan, did you raise or check?

Everybody has hobbies. Poker is Rons. Hes a solid guy.

Jeff Barnes was well organized. He had about 20-30 pages of rules hes written regarding home inspection; including some on inspection training, educator requirements, standards, test requirements, etc.

I’m doing this from memory off just brief notes I took, so please understand that this may not be 110% accurate - but its as close as I remember.

The 5 member Board, Tom Lauhon from Leavenworth, Kansas and myself were present. One other inspector from Wichita came for about 1 hour then left.

There were a bunch of rules on home inspection trainers that were intended as Jeff phrased it - to prevent a bunch of “Billy Bobs” from opening Training Schools in their basements or garages and having a Training School open up on every corner.

For instance some of the rules Jeff had written said the Trainer Providing entry level instruction should be a state licensed Post Secondary Training School or Facility - trainers must lease or own their own facility (not lets say rent and hold classes for a week in a meeting room or hotel ballroom, etc). The trainers must carry $1,000,000 insurance naming the state as a 2nd insured (in case somebody falls and gets hurt while in school); the trainers facility must meet state or federal ADA requirements for their training site, etc. The Trainer had to hold a **MINIMUM **number of inspections each year. The application fee to apply for approval of a Pre-Licensing Training Class would be about $800.

In reading the rules I’m confident it will keep out the “Billy Bobs”, but as written, in my opinion it could also keep out a local Chapter of a National Association, etc that wanted to hold a once-a-year entry level to the profession training seminar to raise money for their group. In fact as I saw it - as its currently written, the people it would let in ASAP would be the “Corporate Bobs” (the big franchise groups or someone holding classes in conjunction with Vo-Techs or community colleges). Jeff assigned a committee to review this further. Tom Lauhon from Leavenworth, Kansas and myself were placed on the committee.

The meeting ran all day from about 9:30 till close to 5:00. They ordered sandwiches from a deli nearby at lunch and worked right through.

The new Kansas Board of Home Inspectors chose Officers from among themselves. Jeff Barnes is Chairman; the Realtor from Kansas City is Secretary; the Attorney from Wichita is Vice-Chair.

Jeff had apparently talked to all the national inspector organizations, etc and they all had tests they used or recommended, but at this point it looks like only 1 group (he didn’t mention who) has a test that he feels meets the criteria that he and somebody else determined is needed to establish home inspector competency. He’s gonna take a look at this testing issue again to make sure he hasn’t overlooked someone, and that nobody else has a test that meets the Standards as he’s written them at this time.

HB-2315 was orginally set up so that the inspectors could use their own Associations set of Standards. Jeff mentioned that if someone bought a house on Monday and the inspector used say the ASHI Standards, THEN on Thursday they sold their other house and the inspector used say the NAHI or NACHI Standards, it could be confusing for the consumer. Jeff is gonna have a committee look at the possibility of adopting the Standards of 1 Association, or perhaps having a Kansas set Standards.

Jeff mentioned hes got an insurance company lined up that can sell us the surety bonds. He didn’t say who, where, etc.

He’s asked the AG’s office for a written ruling on whether the Bill and all its requirements can be enforced IMMEDIATELY as the realtors lobbyist Luke Bell is telling everyone. That guy is gonna get someone sued if he keeps running off at the mouth like he’s doing.

Jeff has found a lady that may be willing to help the Kansas Home Inspector Board out by being a part-time administrator for us. I don’t remember him telling us much about her, except that he said she’s very familiar with the home inspection profession and lives near Leavenworth, Kansas.

Due to the amount of work involved in reviewing the rules Jeff Barnes had written, the Board got maybe half-way through them at this meeting.

Thats kinda the highlights that I remember for right now.

NHIE and ASHI SOP…any other surprises?

Interesting E-mail I received today from another source. Now someone is definitely sending or speaking the wrong message. I imagine that I am the one being referrenced as complaining about the one day notice.

Interesting, very interesting. Jeff the Pony Express was shut down in the late 1800’s. The ponies and riders slipped slowly into the sunset. So in keeping with the time frames I still believe the “White man speaks with forked tongue” but on the other hand I can hear Barnes quoting Shakespeare “Me thinks he doth protests too much…”

Yep folks this message board is filled with nothing but lies :roll:

Jim -

They didn’t reference the ASHI sop or NHIE.

What we have here, is a failure to communicate. The first thing the board needs to do is to contact every inspector in the State of Kansas. I have recieved inspections from Canada, Mexico, and most states in the U.S. by way of my web site for inspections of homes that out of state buyers are purchasing here in the Kansas City area. I have never recieved an e-mail via my web site from any other inspector, or orginization. Jeff needs to read the HB-2315 every time he and his board say something. Even one word can change everything. I worked with a person for two years who has done 26,000 home inspections. He, and people like Dan and Nick should be advised by Jeff, so that he and the board make the right choices. Community colleges can be utilized for educational purposes. That is what they are for. Not the private enterprises, who will be in it for marketing purposes. To be a teacher, a minimum of 3,000 inspections performed, plus 200 per year should be implimented, at a minimum. A lot of eyes are on Jeff. I hope someday to meet him, and, perhaps he would like to meet me. Just for the record, I am close to retirement. Not yet. This may be fun.

I stand by what I wrote and am especially curious as to the meaning of (as you wrote it it) “HB-2315 was orginally set up so that the inspectors could use their own Associations set of Standards.”

I’m sure that you asked the members of the board for their source of the “original” intent of the requirement since…allegedly…this law was written by your congress and not the board. Secondly, I would be even more interested in how the board can decide to do something other than what was originally intended by the authors of the law.

Their job is to implement…not change or reinterpret. They have no power other than to do exactly what “was originally intended” and to do otherwise is in violation of the law, itself.

HB-2315 Says the Home Inspector will provide his client with:

**A completed pre-inspection agreement.
**(d) ‘‘Pre-inspection agreement’’ means a written contract between a
customer and a home inspector to do a home inspection.

(e) ‘‘Pre-inspection notice’’ means a document which shall be pro-
vided to a customer prior to the start of the home inspection. The pre-
inspection notice shall contain, at a minimum, the following information:

(1) A clear description of the scope of the home inspection;

(2) a clear description of any limitations on the liability of the home
inspector for any errors and omissions
which may arise during the home inspection; and

(3) an identification of the national home inspection organizations
approved by the board which the home inspector is a member of at the
time of the home inspection; and

(4) an identification of the standards of practice **approved by the
board **which the home inspector will be following during the home in-
spection.

Further along the law says:

The board shall have the following duties and powers:
(a) Administer and enforce the provisions of this act;
(b) approve and adopt the standards of practice of nationally-recog-
nized home inspection associations which meet the requirements of this
act;

'“the trainers facility must meet state or federal ADA requirements for their training site.”
Why is the above phrase so important. Is Kansas going to be licensing handicapped inspectors. How are they going to fit their wheelchairs in attics. I am confused.

Note that the board lacks the authority to create it’s own…simply to approve an existing SOP of a nationally recognized home inspection association.

The statements made at the meeting contrary to this provision of law should be carried back to the public, by way of newspaper (letter to the editor, news release, etc) as an abuse of power from the special interests that drove the law through the congress.

If the objective is to protect the consumer, somebody needs to step up to the plate and protect the consumer from a board that is rubber stamping one man’s personal agenda at their expense…under the disguise of state approval…while violating the law that created his position.

Waiting until the board enacts the special interests of those who tricked their way into existence will be too late, for at that point, you are simply disagreeing with what they do. In this instance, it is the process that is illegal and wrong and needs to be pointed out, immediately, to the powers that be BEFORE Barnes has the chance to enact his personal agenda.

Barnes is ASHI there is no doubt. Just looking at his lowballer prices he charges should prove that. He will not want to learn another SOP or take a test he has not past. He has not shown any integrity yet and I assume he never will. Living under Realtor’s thumbs will do that to an inspector. The crayon is on the wall.

Jim Bushart’s analysis is correct.

[quote=“jbushart, post:32, topic:32952”]

Note that the board lacks the authority to create it’s own…simply to approve an existing SOP of a nationally recognized home inspection association.

[quote]

Correction: associations
I agee! If he adopts or writes just one SOP, he is abusing power.

Nick, I believe your comment was that the third meeting was where everything was going to be propose and planned and that nothing would happen from the first meeting. They have sure started the boulder rolling down the hill.

It will be hard to stop as soon as it gets moving, for sure!

I have a favor of everyone. There are people reading this thread about the Kansas home inspectors bill. Please be honest, and truthfull. Having a poker player, a chairman who has everything already written, another person who left the meeting early, and the school thing. We have other threads written all year that said that all of this was going to happen. Control of our industry is at hand. The ball is rolling, and fast. I hope the Senators are listening. Just another abuse of power, and government control of another industry. Freedoms as we know them, are being lost.

Limiting this discussion to this thread is flatulence in the wind.

Official and decisive action must be taken by a citizen of Kansas to his legislator…or anyone else to the media…immediately.

The person that left early was just a local HI like you and me that came to watch for awhile then left.

Several guys have cracked on one of the Board members because I mentioned he had been in Vegas playing poker. You seem to have overlooked that when his connecting flight from Vegas to Garden City was canceled in Denver, he rented a car and drove all night to get to this meeting. I want to hear someone say - what dedication, atta boy. Not crack on someone for going to Vegas.

Remember also, the law don’t kick in till 7/09 for city guys and back in 2011 for rural guys in under 60,000 population counties. There is no money to pay these guys per diem, for gas, for food, etc. Ron is from a county where he don’t have to comply with the law for 2.5 years yet. He’s doing this to try and help shape what others have got us into.