Where is CanNachi durng all of this?
That is a very good question.
What ever happened to them?
Mike,
CanNachi is new and we should not blame them.
The question should be where was INACHI during all of this?
But my guess is that it got lost during the transition…
What you have to realize is that INACHI is a very good educational resource for home inspectors, but as an organization that provides “credentials” it is lacking in that it does not provide any kind of verification.
Yes, it has the exam to become a member, but there is no way to prove that the person taking the exam is the person who says they passed it.
Strangely, what INACHI has developed is probably the best resource for home inspectors on the planet.
Unfortunately, it does not wish to go the next step, which is validation and verification. Fair enough, just as long as you realize that INACHI will not be of any use when it comes to provincial licensing.
or can we keep INACHI going and go above and beyond what is required?
There is nothing that says we have to drop INACHI and all the benefits. How is it going to upset anyone if we go the extra mile?
Someone will have to.
Your CAHPI folks are working hard to try to convince your government that their standards are minimal…that they represent the “entry level” inspector. Shouldn’t NACHI membership be MORE than that?
Without some sort of movement towards becoming recognized and accredited in Canada, INACHI will always remain an educational web site (nothing wrong with that).
As I’ve said before, I think the best combination is National Certification + INACHI. And if we could get the various educational resources accredited, it would be awesome.
It is cheaper now to gain your National Certification than ever before. After January 1, 2010 it is going to become harder for people with non-recognized training to become Nationally Certified.
This is moment while the door is still open. Take advantage of it while you can.
InterNACHI’s requirements www.nachi.org/membership.htm are above and beyond whatever your local state/city/provincial government sets as a minimum for licensing.
Whatever your local jurisdiction requires, whatever it is (a proctored exam, E&O insurance, 50 ride-a-longs, 25 jumping jacks), whatever… to be an InterNACHI member, you must then voluntarily fulfill InterNACHI’s requirements ON TOP of it. That is why InterNACHI inspectors are the best.
Would you hire an inspector who only did the bare minimum required (only-licensed)?
Being licensed is a lot like being up-to-code. It is so bad that if you did anything less it would be outright illegal. A licensed inspector is like the bottom rung of a ladder. It is a beginning. InterNACHI is the top of the ladder.
Unfortunately the INACHI requirements are all based on the honour system, which may be an admirable stance to take, but government licensing committees tend to insist on something a bit more substantial.
And the point is, in BC you need to have a license to be a home inspector. And sad to say, INACHI is not an accredited organization in the eyes of the BC government.
Nick, if you can convince them otherwise, I would be the happiest home inspector in BC.
In the states we have a known no-entrance-requirement diploma mill called ASHI. You can join online in 35 seconds with nothing more than a credit card. Anyway… ASHI’s top tier, highest, full membership status uses the same exam (NHIE) that many states use to provide a minimum competency license to newbies.
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Their bottom membership category (associate) requires nothing.
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Their top, full membership category (certified member) uses the government’s minimum standard exam used to license newbies, fresh out of school.
So the ground level in the states is ASHI and other diploma mills.
Government licensing is the first rung of the ladder.
InterNACHI is the top of the ladder.
W. Paul: InterNACHI is already the most accredited provider of education in the history of home inspections. See right column of www.nachi.org/education.htm You will note something though. None of our accreditations and/or approvals are for Intro 101 (pre-licensing) courses. Some states give us core approvals on their own, but we didn’t apply for them and won’t.
We simply don’t seek to be a provider or Intro 101 (pre-licensing) courses in any state or province (including BC). Never have. Never will. Let the lower tier associations cater to the newbies. We focus on the advanced inspector (be it in education, marketing, etc.).
Our Code of Ethics 1.10 http://www.nachi.org/code_of_ethics.htm already requires inspectors to be legal. Then when their all legal, and the government says they posses minimum competency, and their all licensed up, proctored, checked, registered, signed, stamped, and sealed… they can then come to InterNACHI to get the other 99% of the pie that will make them great and get them to the top of the ladder.
I’ve been studying the posts referencing these licensing attempts in Canada, Nick, and it is difficult for me to fathom why these guys are so intent in arguing that their advanced certifications are nothing more than (and should be adopted by the provinces as) entry level requirements.
It seems that they are too impatient to allow the government to dumb down the profession and they have taken that agenda into their own hands.
Someone with some common sense needs to step back, evaluate the direction that this argument has taken, and regain control.
Why would InterNACHI (or anyone, really) strive to become a mere entry level minimum?
Jim. Good question. Answer: Personal insecurity about their own competency. They want some government bureaucrat to stamp them on the forehead “HAS DEMONSTRATED MINIMUM COMPETENCE”
Let them do their thing. I think we’ll stay up here.
It doesn’t matter what you say about INACHI, the truth of the matter is, in BC you cannot practice as a home inspector if all you have is an INACHI membership.
I didn’t make the rules, but I have to abide by them. If you truly believe in what you say then why don’t you become a part of the process like the other organizations in providing authentication of your requirements to the BC government so that INACHI members don’t have to jump through multiple hoops to be able to earn a living.
One of the TV stations used the online exam to discredit INACHI, which was one of the reasons why the provincial government sped forward with the whole licensing fiasco.
It’s too late in BC to argue that INACHI qualifications are above and beyond the licensing standards. They have assessed INACHI and found it not credible.
You should be stating your case to the authorities, to help INACHI members by backing up your beliefs with facts and statistics.
??? What point are you making? You cannot practice as a home inspector in any licensed state in the U.S. either if all you have is an InterNACHI membership… and we are HUGE in licensed states.
Again, InterNACHI is not a minimum-competency association that caters to newbies. It is the government’s duty to set and administer minimum requirements (perhaps with the help of bottom dwelling associations).
Our requirements are ABOVE AND BEYOND (on top of) whatever you local government requires.
BTW: Being a REALTOR (member of the private association the National Association of REALTORs) alone doesn’t get you a real estate license anywhere in the U.S. or Canada either.
Being a licensed real estate agent (being legal) is a requirement of being a member of NAR… not the reverse.
Less than 1/2 of all licensed agents are members of NAR. Less than 1/4th of all home inspectors are members of InterNACHI.
The point is, BC licensing trumps INACHI qualifications, not because it is necessarily “better” but because it is backed by the weight of law. It may be a stupid idea, it may in fact be as you say, a mere minimum.
If INACHI qualifications are so good then why was INACHI not listed as one of the group of associations that were granted licensing by the BC government for their members?
For the same reason InterNACHI is not listed as an association that provides minimum-standard licensing by any State in the U.S.
We’ve never provided anything that would directly cause a newbie to instantly acquire a government license… and we never will.
Again, InterNACHI’s requirements www.nachi.org/blind.htm are ABOVE AND BEYOND (on top of) whatever your particular local government makes you do to prove minimum competency.
From a business model standpoint… being licensed only provides a distinction (and therefore a competitive advantage) during the short spell of time when licensing is being adopted (when some have the government minimum standard credential and some don’t yet).
This spell of time is no place InterNACHI wants to be. Because when it’s all over, when everyone is licensed, the party is over.
You’ll see. I’ve seen it over 20 time in the states. Once everyone is licensed (legal), the government credential becomes a wash. Meaningless, because everyone waves one.
I’m sure there are fine organizations, government agencies, intro trade schools or whatever that are cut out to cater to and help newbies become minimally competent and get their stamp of approval or whatever they get issued. InterNACHI doesn’t have any of those “Caution, Student Driver” signs on it’s vehicles. Let them do their thing down there. We’ll continue to do ours up here.
…and when everyone has a license, those who are pushing for licensing, today, will be using the same media to show how insufficient the licensing laws are…and how the public is being duped by them.
You will see…as we do, here in the states…where a TV camera is hidden in a house and five LICENSED inspectors are called in and only one of the five found the defect that the TV Producer (and his CAHPI associate) planted and determined that every inspector should find.
Then…you will see as we have learned…that the drive for licensing as a tool to “thin the herd” and reduce your competition…fails every time. Usually, the effect is the exact opposite.
Licensing solves nothing.
Those who will reduce their current level of skill to an entry level requirement will be the most harmed.