Florida licensing a closer look

At a recent home inspector board meeting the Florida “coalition” licensing bill was discussed at length and questions immediately arose concerning enforcement, copied from the bill is the enforcement clause below.

It is the opinion of the group that the deceptive and unfair trade practice clause is very detrimental to our profession and should be removed. To help with your understanding of this clause listed below is the civil penalties connected to the statute.

Deceptive trade practices allow that a defendant (home inspector) can be sucessfully sued for a dollar and then be saddled with all the costs required to prosecute that case, which could be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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(16) ENFORCEMENT OF VIOLATIONS.–Any violation of this
section constitutes a deceptive and unfair trade practice,
punishable as provided in part II of this chapter.
Section 2. For the 2005-2006 fiscal year, the sum of
**$642,463 is appropriated from the Professional Regulation
Trust Fund, and four positions are authorized, to the
Department of Business and Professional Regulation for the
purpose of conducting licensing and regulatory activities
associated with home inspection services.
**(my bold)

Four people making $160,600.00 each?..:shock:

Looks like you just found my new job Dale.

Holy mackeral…how bad could that be?..:cool: :cool: :cool:

Probably a state car/truck included also, plus benefits of course…:smiley:

I don’t think so Greg, the average wage in this state is less than $30,000 pa, I guess that the $160,000 per postition is the real cost per head.

Can anyone spell state inefficiency???

Regards

Gerry

Gerry,

You’re probably trying to scare folks off applying for the position…:smiley:

Are you posting this message from a rest-stop on your way to the capital…:smiley:

To fill out the first application form…:smiley:

I haven’t heard anymore from Joe, hell he might of already headed that way himself…:smiley: :smiley:

Lets not soft soap it. 15 yrs for the 1st offense - life w/out parole for a 2nd.

Lets stand up and be big boys and show everyone else what we’re made of.

Gosh I just really get carried away thinking of the possibilities of this.

I will be waiting with my handcuffs

Understanding that I’m not the sharpest pencil in the pack… Would it be possible for those who voted in favor of the use of deceptive and unfair trade practice to post and explain how this is the best remedy for home inspectors or the consumer? Thanks in advance.

I have just been informed of a new wrinkle that is worthy of note. Today in the mail I received my 2nd notice for my FABI renewal: Total Due $195.00.

At the bottom of the page reads the following paragraph.

I am no longer privy to the inner workings of FABI but a good guess would lead me to believe that this money will be used to promote licensing in one way or another. Looks like about $60,000 is being earmarked, where is NACHI’s battle fund?

Isn’t FABI a part of this so-called “coalition” that Jay Schwartz is sitting with?

Yes.

Before receiving that I was weighing what value there was to being a FABI Member. After reading that the choice was very easy. My time at FABI is over as for me there was no value as a member and I will be dammed if I am going to support wasting more money on legislation. IMHO those funds would have been better used to promote the members. Good luck to you guys at FABI.

I thought Nick was on the FABI board of directors

If so something is wrong here or maybe everyone else at FABI wants this bill

rlb

Nick has no relationship with FABI.

The discussion last session, at FABI, seemed to center around the need to pass ANY bill…with the hope that, once in place, it can be honed and fine tuned to meet their agenda.

Jerry Peck led the cause to grandfather everyone presently in business, knowing it would decrease opposition and would have less appearance of being exclusionary.

As FABI’s ex-president has pointed out, the power of licensing does not necessarily stem as much from granting a license as it does from the control over the licensee who desires not to LOSE his license.

Give everyone in the state a license…then, you have them under the control of the licensing board who can dictate (by interpretation or other maneuvers) what one must do to keep it.

It is quite cunning.

Like Greg Bell I will no longer be associated with FABI due to their lobbying activities, in a few years they will have wished they spent the money promoting their members then on this folly.

The one thing I do admire about FABI is that they are people of conviction who are unafraid to put their money where their mouth is. If we at NACHI had half that conviction of character we would need much less money per person to move mountains.

All the best to my former FABI members.

Joe Burkeson

FABI lists 372 members on their web site. At 40% of dues spent on licensing lobbying and assuming that all members renew, that will give them in the neighborhood of 29K.

They are spending 60% of the dues or $117 per member on legislative efforts.

Someone told me 40. So they have about 40k instead. I’m not sure what that will buy. They probably have other money though.

Interesting that FABI seems to be becoming a PAC rather than a home inspector association.