I am looking for anyone (NACHI member or otherwise) who might be providing engineering services to their clients through this site.
It is being promoted as a means of increasing income of home inspectors who are willing to pay a licensed engineerfor his expertise regarding structural issues discovered during a home inspection and reselling the information to his client or contractor, among other services.
It is being promoted by a vendor, Dale, but I really don’t want to drag him into this and take this discussion down to his usual level.
I agree with you that every state that licenses engineers, which I imagine to be every state, would not want or allow to have unlicensed “Engineer Technicians” providing “engineering services” for sale (or resale) … but we have several home inspectors who have argued that they think that this is a legitimate thing to do.
We are told that it is authorized in “46 states” but, so far, can find none who have agreed that they do. I am hoping to communicate with someone who actually performs this work to see how it is actually done and how it has been made to conform to state laws if, indeed, it has.
I have used them for an FHA foundation certification and it was a very pleasant experience. They clearly defined what information and photos were needed from the field and provided a timely report based on that information.
Also, it’s not a large company (two main guys, I believe).
FYI - Its acceptable for a licensed engineer to review the work and data gathered by anyone. Ultimately the engineer is responsible for anything they sign and seal. The engineer would have to hold a valid license in the state in which they were offering their services. In Missouri, as in most states, it is illegal to offer engineering services if you are not an engineer. Anyone not an engineer could advertise they use the services of an engineer or have one on staff, but they could not advertise as if they were an engineering firm. Even though I hold a valid engineer’s license I still have to get a Certificate of Authority from the state to offer engineering services as a company business. So this company James is referring to is offering basically the same services as Hayman. Before I would put the word engineer in any literature or on you website, I would check with your state licensing board for approval.
There are a few outfits that hire Inspectors to take the pictures for S.E’s to review for years and they are draw inspections so I guess this would not be much different other than the cut split.
Inspectors who find structural issues during their inspections pay for “engineering solutions” after performing a “field evaluation” themselves, given to them by a licensed engineer and “resell” the advice to the client or the contractor. If the client is not happy with the inspector’s findings, the engineer will join in a conference call with the inspector, the client and the real estate agent.
This has nothing to do with HUD certifications.
Once more … I am looking for someone who has actually performed this … or anything similar to this … in their area. Not HUD certifications.