Check it out. Double dipping

Home owner pays WCE for inspection. Company gives discounts. Insurance company pays same WCE to go back. Homeowner loses discounts given by same company. I would recommend fowarding this to all of your insurance contacts. This kind of stuff is shady as hell and should not be tolerated in our industry. Does anyone know who started the agent referral rewards programs? If anyone is unaware, kickbacks are illegal in the insurance industry as well as the real estate industry.

WCE’s were paid by the state to give away discounts, MSFH… They were all done wrong, (Allegedly) … The same companies get paid by the state to remove the discounts…Outreach.

Don Myler. Gee. Go figure. Now he is screwing everyone twice. Its amazing how the crooks tend to survive.

I’ve done inspections for clients who are being moved into other companies who have lost discounts on the newest form vs the old 2 page form I did for them back in 2007. It’s not MSFH vs Outreach, or who is a crook or is not, it’s Florida OIR amending the forms and what qualifies for discounts.

Each and every time the form is amended it is to the detriment of the home owner. The insurance companies use their lobbyists to grease the palms of the politicians to complain to the OIR and the OIR then starts the ball rolling, changes the form to the benefit of the insurance companies and out comes a new form.
There is no real difference to what we are going through. Yes we have Wayne as our lobbyist, but we don’t have the funds to grease the palms of the politicians like the GC’s, Realtors and Insurance lobbyists do. One of the reasons for this is that less than 1% of home inspectors are giving 90% of the money to the legislative fund. If every inspector would donate $10 a month ($120 a year) we could compete and our message would be heard and acted upon by the lawmakers in Tallahassee. As of right now there is less than $1 per month (as an average of all inspectors) comming in to the legislative fund.
Don’t complain that things are getting harder for home inspectors if you are expecting us, the 1% to do the work for you. We can only do so much. The rest of you need to participate too.

On this one we made not need the money grease, we have the momentum of the media we just need to help it along. I am hoping one of the contacts calls back and we can then just feed them information to bring to light what we have been saying all along.

Just give them the FACTS and let them come to the conclusion. We want no fabrication, no skewing the facts. Just the plain facts. I hope after this an inquiry will occur on the re-inspection companies and their role in this and have a forensic accountant go through the books and see what is happening. I have numerous screen shots of accounting errors.

All we want is professional and honest work, but once it gets on the other side we must stand up and protect what is right and just and moral…and that is what I will try to make happen. I will be contacting some of you for information and facts and details.

Once again, togther we stand…divided we stand…I refuse to fall!

I performed a Wind Mit on a re-inspected house last week. The house was reinspected in January of this year.

The reinspector rated All Glazed as covered. It had windows that were NOT shuttered. :shock:

*That’s right! I took away a rating that the re-inspector gave in error. *
**

I have photogaraphs of the inspection the re-inspection company performed. :mrgreen:

I have only seen about 50 done by others on the 2 page form and to be honest all 50 were done wrong. If you dont have any glazing protection how can you qualify? Or if your roof was installed in 1987 how can it meet the 2001 fbc? Just saying…

I think the difference if between fraud and mistakes or an inspector finding something different over another.

Same WCE has preferred vendor contract for another Carrier in South Florida. Clents are streered to said company and guaranteed no reinspection. One year later, same homeowners are being reinspected by same company.

My defense is not for a WCE, not at all. I do see questionable activity out there. I see the need for reinspections due to all the poorly done retail inspections. Remember there are guys here that are some of the best out there but ehat about the other 5000 the do them wrong every time.

And ask yourself why they were done wrong. A lot were done wrong due to lack of training and understanding. But a lot were done wrong so “inspectors” could make money. Remember all the ads that said “your money back, or no charge, if we cannot save you money on your insurance”. Well, guess what? Those inspectors always found a credit.

The insurance agents would only use those inspectors that found credits because they were writing more policies than the other guy. Same thing is going on with 4-points. Once an insurance agent looses a customer due to an inspection, he finds another inspector who will write what he wants. This whole business is not about correct inspections, it is about who can make the most money, including both the inspectors and the insurance agents.

Private inspections are now a waste of money for the consumer if that other post was correct and Citizens is sending out re-inspectors and only using that report. The insurance companies should be doing the inspections and we should only be doing them to rebut their results. But the system is so screwed up that that will never happen. Until it becomes about the consumer and fairness and not about the money things will never change. As long as politicians are involved the insurance system is doomed.

Re-inspections have a valid roll in the process.

But here is where things go wrong:
-To force homeowners to pay the re-inspection firms to return.
-To refuse to allow Homeowners from hiring their own inspector.
-To be capable of promising on the retail end that their inspections are not subject to reinspection.
-All based on a Captive market where the insured can only purchase Citizens Ins.

All valid arguments Jay. Those are issues that need addressing.

I believe until you can get the retail side under control the odds are against you. I can personally tell you that 75% of all “wrong” inspection are blatantly wrong. The other 25% are something like where an inspector does not consider an entry door with glass a glazed opening (mostly because they are uneducated). It is a real eye opener if you have ever performed a reinspection or have QA’d reports sent over by insurance agents on the retail side. What agrument do you have when the numbers are against you like that? You need to be prepared with a defense. This is why the qualifications for being able to perform wind inspections needs to be raised across the board. Now there is other shaddy activity within the reinspection program involving the admistrators and their treatment of inspectors that should be looked into.

Interesting points and something to think about: Aren’t all of us lowly licensed home inspectors REQUIRED to have training for wind mitigation inspections prior to being allowed to do wind mits? If that is correct, then it would appear that the errors from untrained or uneducated individuals doing wind mitigation inspections would be from licensees other than us lowly home inspectors. Hmm!

And still it is the lowly home inspector being scapegoated for the “high error rate”. Something just doesn’t add up. Could it be that someone wants home inspectors (who are perfectly positioned to deliver the wind mitigation inspection at the time when people will be needing insurance on the home that they are purchasing) out of the wind mitigation inspection business? Hm?

Steve, errors are from all across the board. The difference is I am offering a completely unbias view that is educated on all aspects. Being as though I hold licenses in 4 different industries it enables me offer a different aspect for all to consider. I never said it was just HI’s but I will tell you that 3hrs of education doesn’t make anyone qualified, GC or HI.

I would hope you are not referring to me. Again errors are from all. Unfortunately with 7000 home inspectors out there it leaves it open 4 a hight error rate

No, I was not referring to you- or anyone else on this message board. You are correct that 3 hours training is not enough with respect to wind mitigation inspections- but - what class is available for home inspectors that is only 3 hours anyway? Every class that I have ever taken regarding wind mitigation inspection has been a full day. (as you know- nachi’s is 16 hours).

Back to what I was actually referring to: The insurance industry lobby as well as the WCE lobby are seeking to control the insurance industry inspection racket. Clearly, home inspectors are in the way on the retail side. There is a great deal of money involved. Just look at the “re-inspection” contracts. Sorry if you got the wrong impression -that was not my intent.