Well, whether it happened last week as TAR would like us to believe or if it happened today, it’s a moot point isn’t it? It does now, as of 7pm, Monday appear to have passed the Senate and will be on to the Gov for signature. See: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=80R&Bill=SB914#vote206
I know several inspectors who had E&O before all this garbage,
Just because your cost of doing business isn’t going up like the rest of Texas inspectors, please think about this and raise your prices accordingly.
Insurance is based on risk.
My auto coverage doesn’t merely reflect my stellar driving record for the last 20 or so years, no, it is based on the number of accidents, thefts, etc in my area.
E&O costs will do the same.
You don’t have to be sued or have a claim for your insurance to go up, if the company perceives a increase in risk, the premiums of everyone will go up.
Say hello to inspections starting at $1500
(too wore out right now to really care)
E&O before the bill was a business choice that protected the inspector
E&O after the bill protect the consumer.
Big difference.
I too am worn out by this caca dung manure excrement droppings poo poo do do (the forum censures the word s ***) 
George…go get some rest. This too shall pass…well, maybe that’s not right but you get my drift. I know you are just getting started and this looks very daunting right now but think about it like this. If you end up with $3500/year E&O and you do 100 inspections this year then that’s only $35/inspection. Now, I believe, that if you shop around you will get E&O for around $2000/year. With luck and a lot of hard work you will do 200 inspections in the next 12 months…then that’s only $10/inspection. Yes, we all will have to raise our prices to stay at the profit margin we are accustomed to but we won’t need to raise prices to the $1500 level. That is, unless gas prices keep going up. 
Since the government of Texas seems to believe that the consumer is best served by putting the inspector in the position of CYA by filling your inspection report with miles of boilerplate comments\callouts and disclaimers.
I am going to start a new thread in the report writing (members only section) for Texas Inspectors to create and share their best disclaimers and boilerplate.
Hope to see you there
Texas Inspectors need to take into account who is providing the E&O insurance also. The Texas Department Of Insurance ( TDI at http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/ ) regulates carriers in Texas and is very specific about carriers. You can buy E&O from any carrier you want however:
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Texas wants its surcharges, fees and taxes paid to the state for all policies purchased. If your carrier/agent is not licensed in Texas then they are not allowed to sell insurance here. Chances are high the carrier/agent will not be paying these fees. You will be responsible for paying these fees if TDI is made aware of your policy.
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Underwriters for policies must also be approved/licensed here in Texas. If the underwriter is not approved/licensed then Texas/TDI will not go to bat for you if a problem arises with your policy. For example, if you have a high dollar claim against you and the underwriter refuses to pay out for any reason then you are on your own. If the underwriter chooses to cancel your policy for no good reason you are on your own.
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There is a fund here in Texas to cover claims for insolvent underwriters. If they are not approved in Texas and go belly up then you are on your own.
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Any disagreements with approved/licensed carriers/agents and underwriters in Texas can be brought to TDI and a process is in place for them to investigate. If they are unapproved/unlicensed you are on your own.
Has anyone compiled a list of the approved carriers/agents and underwriters for Inspector E&O here in Texas?
As pointed out elsewhere, the following is an excerpt from Rep Brian McCall’s (the author of the amendment) bio:*McCall holds a Bachelors degree from Baylor University, a Masters degree from Southern Methodist University, spent a year as a Visiting Post-Graduate student at Oxford University, and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is an advisor to Guaranty Insurance and Quest Network Business Solutions. *
Want to guess what Guaranty Insurance sells?: https://www.insurance.guarantygroup.com/CommercialServices.asp?service=pro_Liability
Just a little conflict of interest wouldn’t you say? Guaranty Insurance is a subsidiary of Temple Inland Corp…HQ’d here in Austin. It’s all beginning to become clearer isn’t it? I think I shall draft a letter to both Rep McCall and to the CEO of Guaranty Insurance explaining how this reeks!
Well…that pretty much describes the situation doesn’t it? John, do you have a death wish or what? BTW, I just saw on the 5:00 news that Rep McCall is one of 4 Reps that are attempting to unseat Speaker of the House Tom Craddick, maybe even tonight in a political coup at the House of Rep’s. He’s not only wanting to unseat Craddick, he wants the Speaker’s job! Damn, he’s a busy boy isn’t he?
I’ll leave the site up for an hour and see if he calls. death wish? Hell he has already done that. Home inspection is screwed.
Ha. Someone from McCall called and said take down the site or else. I took it down. Then WFAA called and said why did you take down the site, we were looking at it. I sent them a PDF of it. Could be interesting.
Fricking politicians
Whooo doggie…don’t you just love Texas politics! Maybe we should fax a copy of the pdf to local news here in Austin. The legislature is getting tons of media coverage right now.
McCall has been all over the news tonight. He and the other two that are leading the charge to unseat Craddick say that Craddick has a financial conflict of interest in some of the bills he is overseeing and voting for. Wait!!..what??? Send me the pdf’s John, I’ll send them to the local media. If we can’t stop the E&O amendment then let’s do all we can to make sure McCall doesn’t get rewarded with Speaker of the House.
OK. I sent it to WFAA. I also faxed it to Craddick. I’ll email it to you.
Cannot figure out how to attach file. Email me at john@cahillinspection.com and I’ll send it to you.
It attached to your post just fine…I’ve got it.
What a snake that McCall is. Time to raise prices.
Better yet…let’s make sure he doesn’t benefit from this. One, let’s see if we can keep him from getting the Speaker’s role and then we can see about making sure all Texas HI’s boycott Guaranty Insurance for their E&O needs.
don’t know about the first one, but count me in on the boycott.
Well, I put my neck on the line along with John’s and sent the pdf to the Big 3 local news channels here in Austin. It’s just a PSA, right? Who, knows…they might even use it. Please, if no one hears from me for a couple of days please call to make sure I haven’t been whacked!
John,
Got your news release on Rep. McCall and it definitely confirms what I suspected was going on in the dark of the night. There had to be a financial reward involved in this for certain people for it to be handled the way it was. You have provided a great service by exposing McCall and his cohorts that helped to sponsor the amendment. I hope that the media will really pick up on this and put the whole issue out there in the light of day. I have been trying to build my business up for over two years and there is a very strong possiblity that I am going to be forced to call it quits because of this hugh added expense. An expense that I don’t believe that I can absorb at my current volume of inspections even if I raise my prices. The old saying that no one is safe when the Texas legislature is in session is proving to be true for the inspection industry. Is there any hope that Gov. Perry would veto this bill if he knew how wrong it is and the underhanded way that it was introduced without any opportunity for a fair discussion before the vote?
Gary Loughman
Assured Home Inspections, PLLC