Here Comes The Kansas Bill

I was not there so todays meeting is heresay, but was told that one of the committee members thought a 2 year Limit of Liability for us would be good.

This is confusing. The Engineering law in Kansas as most of you know, excludes 1&2 Family houses from the engineering laws. Engineers are not required to have E&O insurance OR …, nor prohibited from limiting their liability by time OR $$$. They got themselves EXCLUDED from the Bill.

In the KC area we have about 20-23 licensed PE’s doing inspections. Cool!

I was also told that Mr Barnes has provided them with some language that calls for 2 types of inspection type agreements. One to be given to clients when they sign the RE Contract kind of detailing in general what a HI will do, etc. Then you can present your regular inspector specific inspection agreement at the site. I was told that one person present at this committee meeting asked HOW the 1st contract would get signed, etc and someone (they thought it was Mr Barnes) said we may need to Rely on Agents to get it signed for us. Cool …

Correct me if I am wrong here, but rumor has it that a group of reators said a Home Inspection Board could be done in KS with 40 K a year, according to some membership rosters of ASHI, NAHI and NACHI there is less than 200 association related inspectors in KANSAS. In doing the math that at 200.00 (line 16 - 20 of 2315) per inspector and with 200 inspectors in Kansas that would be 40 k, I guess they are counting on a bunch of western MO inspectors, northern OK inspectors, southern NE and eastern CO inspectors to practise thier trade in KS in case a KS inspector quits…:roll:

Last years preliminary fiscal review ESTIMATED it would take around $130,000 to run a HI Board if memory serves me correctly.

The Lobbyist from KAR (Luke Bell) said the realters had looked at similar sized Boards (175-250) and felt IF we had a PART-TIME Board, we could do it on $40,000 till we got bigger and could afford a FULL-TIME Board.

I thought it was nice that the realters PUSHING this and WRITING this along with Mr. Barnes from Witchta ASHI was willing to set us up PART-TIME.

For any Kansas home inspectors watching this thread - the KAR & Jeff Barnes group (KAREI - Kansas ASHI Association of Real Estate Inspectors) have ramrodded the Kansas Bill 2315 through the committee led by the Realtor from Wichita (Rep Brunk) AND it will be out on the House Floor tomorrow AM.

As you know the real revised Bill 2315 has been visible to KAR, leaders of KAREI, the trial attorneys association, and the commerce committee - BUT not to the rest of us. Its now on the Kansas Legislative web site.

If I read it right it takes 3 yrs and 300 inspections OR FULL membership in a NATIONAL ASSOCIATION approved by the BOARD to be grandfathered. Wonder who Jeff Barnes will approve.

The Board will be 5 members (3 HI’s, 1 Realtor & 1 general public). The HI’s must have been in business for 5 years and done 1,000 inspections.

Cool - wonder if any HI groups will NOT be represented on the Board

Oh and as you know we can’t use language in the inspection agreements to limit our liability to under $10,000

Is there a public hearing on this coming up? Do you want me to come? I’m an hour away.

Goes to House tomorrow AM

Gonna be a lot of screwed over newer inspectors in KS

WEnt to house this AM - sailed through - now aimed toward Senate.

Gonna be a lot of screwed newer inspectors in KS. It went through the House this AM - now enroute to Senate.

It’s always interesting to read about RE agents on state HI boards. Wonder how many inspectors there are on real estate boards…:roll:

Is there a plan to fight it there, or is it time to give up?:roll:

Governors have veto power. It may be time to start laying the groundwork there, as well.

If you can get as many inspectors that are opposed to the legislation as you can to begin a telephone campaign to their state senators you should start that now. Have each of them follow up their phone call with an email and/or letter. Letters count more than phone calls, because it shows them someone took the time to write.

And yes, it is never too early to lobby the Governors office.

Good luck, Gentlemen.