It sure is amazing to see the active number of views on the Canadian Forum. By appearances I would suggest many OAHI-CAHPI members are coming here to find out the latest happenings and news they otherwise are not being told by their own associations. Currently as I am posting there are 26 viewing!
We will do something about it and the process has started.
Larry
Larry
Thank you. You know you have my ear and experience and will provide what assistance is required to ensure EVERYONE’s voice is heard. Not just OAHI’s or CAHPI’s.
Good morning!
There was a post some where recently discussing licencing in the US and how the process did not achieve the desired results. The concept seems good but standards are lowered and more inspector mills pop up.
I hope some research is done on the results of licencing before it is put in place. But maybe we will all be dead before anything happens!
Cheers
Doug
Thats happening now and there is no licencing. Licencing is not meant to limit competition but to set a common benchmark. Licencing should only rely on College accredited training for home inspectors. Those in the profession now should be grandfathered in. Licencing will not occur overnite, and will take time if it even happens.
Roy,
Yes I am new to the industry. I didn’t realize the connections between OAHI and ASHI. Maybe there should be a NACHI Ontario formed as a not for profit organization as a couple of chapters in the States has. If the need to lobby the government arises, the appearance of a large organised Ontario Inspection Association would certainly have more clout. Just some musings from a newbie.
Doug never feel bad about asking a question the only dumb question is the one you do not ask.
We all are here to help one another and when a question gets asked many others also get to see the answer and they to get to learn .
Thanks for asking
We do have a couple of Chapters one just north of you in bradford .
With time we hope they do become more active .
Roy Cooke
The problem with grandfathering is it lets everyone in at too many different levels. It ignores the obvious - review of experience and qualifications. If a benchmark level is set - it would seem counterproductive to assume that everyone grandfathered will automatically meet it!
That was the issue that has arisen in many models of grand"parenting" of the past. Today in colleges and in other certification venues it is more often a case of reviewing ones prior learning/education/experience against the benchmark. Than placing the person at the level recognized. It may be very surprising to see the results.
A case in point I know a few home inspectors that circumvented the process by becoming overnight CHI in an prior inspection organization in Ontario (not NACHI) and than recognized later as RHI’s. It seems to present a “possibility” where there is “unfair” consideration and abuses that can happen with the grandfathering process. To me grandparenting represents too many “assumptions” based on little or no facts. It was often reported by some to feed the statement of the “old boys club”.
I understand your concerns. They make sense. The problem is licencing will have to be based on a some criteria and there is existing criteria to base it on. I think that is fine, but all inspectors in Ontario must have fair and equal representation in this matter “if” it comes to fruition. If they are currently involved in home inspections and have met the enrollement requirements of other associations they must be treated as equals, and I am sure they will, what must not happen is One Association directing the show at the exclusion of other associations. I hope this would not be the case and perhaps Nachi and Oahi can work together on this effort for licencing for the benefit of all.
As to the former association we all know the name as PACHI - Provincial Assoc. Of Cert. Home Inspectors. I understand there were RHI given out to some PACHI members without many questions being asked. While others were scrutinized very closely and given the run around. We don’t need nor want any of that this time around.
As for me I was grandfathered in when Pr 158 was enacted, and I was qualified at that time because I was a full Ashi member accredited by them through thier exams. I have never taken Part 9 or Defect Recognition.
In the end licencing does not cure good and bad inspectors. They will co-exist as always, just as we see in other professions such as Realtors, and Lawyers.
RHI or CHI or no letters Professional Engineer or not . Having been on the OAHI Discipline Committee for some time I saw them all some good some great and some BAD. When I say you I mean the ??? ( self appointed )( of the National Intuitive )
For you or any one else to say that a person who has made his living as a home inspector for ??? years and now must meet your criteria I have a problem with this .
Who but you have given your self the authority to decide the future of an existing home inspector .
Using OAHI as an example we both no is far from the proper way to do things .
They have lied and cheated ( Admitted under oath ).
Since 1951 I have seen many trades become licensed and in all cases those who have been making a living where grandfathered into the system
This more then likely has been going on from before this time .
Why should you decide to reinvent the wheel.
Sorry Claude I will fight for fair play as long as I can stand .
I was just talking to a gentleman from Quebec who took the National Certification test
His words " ( It is a bloody farce )" we talked for many minutes and he said this is the silliest thing I have come up against.
I have talked to more the one from Ontario and they said basically the same thing .
Sorry I have to be a bit evasive as you or others would love to know who and how many I have talked to and they are nervous of the repercussions.
Great way for grown people to feel about the leaders in the Canadian associations .
I sure can see why you and others continue to join NACHI can you say fair play does not exist in the Canadian associations I can .
Information not released is information hidden and why is so much information not given out to the Canadian Inspector Buy both OAHI and CAHPI
Roy Cooke A Happy NACHI member
There are many good inspectors in this org. and others who have been in the business for years and have conducted hundreds of inspections successfully without any vaunted accreditation from any granting body. These are the inspectors who should be ‘grandfathered’. Their experience and success qualifies them with out question.
Period.
Any attempt to establish a lisensing programme in Ontario without incorporating this principle is doomed to failure as can be seen with the National programme. That, obiously, is why OAHI has bailed out of the programme and is now trying to arrange a government sponsoured lisencing programme that they can control.
We, all inspectors, not inside the OAHI ‘old boys club’ remain univolved in this liscencing scheme at our peril.
Not at all I proved with OAHI that must play fair or suffer the consequences .
They spent $35,000:00 ± I spent $1,800:00 and then I got $1,000:00 of that Back from OAHI .
If they try again I now have so much information to show how many places they have varied from the truth and fair play It could be used for a TV series.
All tuned up and ready .
I kept telling them I was a better friend then an enemy
Roy Cooke A happy NACHI member .
Roy - So what criteria should one meet? It sounds like some would want to believe that it should include everyone. I believe in fairness too! But where should the line be drawn?
Seems a while back some seemed a bit bothered by the inspection schools and diploma mills churning out inspectors. The money made at the cost of flooding the market with inspectors, many have helped perpetuate this problem, not just training schools. Now there in itself is the dilemma - they would want to be included too!
Some seem extremely fearful when one’s accountability of the individual inspector and more so if that inspector can or cannot perform the requisite skills required on the occupation. Equally some even fear quality control of training and raising the bar beyond the minium of standards. Besides the standards are challenged even by the courts. Under grandfathering and fairness everyone feels they deserve a free pass. Is that what consumers of the services should base their hard earned investment into a house purchase on? The fact that any person can hang out a shingle tomorrow and be grandfathered in?
I for one believe that one needs to “earn” their way, not be given a “free pass”, just because some feel it seems to be fairer that we should include everyone. Where does the responsibility of advancing our profession begin?
Don’t read me wrong the balance is in finding the common minimum acceptable starting point before one should be “licensed” to practice and fair set of ground rules to keep it equitable for one and all - that have earned their way!
Sorry Claude why should I give you information .
I and others have asked you for information all along and you give little or just ignore us completely .
I must say My feeling is you are part of the problem You are part of the secret society who the way I see it are strictly for them selves .
I would love for you to show me I am wrong and you really are for all inspectors and if so come out and show it .
Tell us what the Hell is going on and tell us why you and others have evaded the questions all along .
Tell us Claude when did you last do an inspection and how many have you done .
Tell us Claude are you one of those who was grandfathered into OAHI and now do not want this system to work for others .
Sorry Claude if I sound upset but I am .
No one from OAHI or from Cahpi has the courtesy to tell the truth .
The President of CAHPI does not even give us the courtesy of a reply to free Booth at the NACHI conference and CAHPI members being allowed to attend the NACHI Conference at NACHI prices .
Why should we the NACHI members take a back seat to a self appointed Group who lacks proper protocol.
OAHI?CAHPI seem to me to want every thing and give nothing well you ain’t going to get me to soft sell the rest of the Canadian Inspectors for your Self appointed self serving group .
Yes I too still think there are too many schools stealing money from those who do not get told the truth.
Your Turn now Claude stand up and be counted a show us what side you are on.
Roy Cooke A Happy Nachi Member
Claude, you have taken 'grandfathering ’ to the extreme. Nobody is suggesting that everyone should be qualified. However, you must agree that there are many inspectors who have proven themselves through years of successful business operation and hundreds of inspections. These inspectors should automatically qualify for lisencure. Establishing the guidlines for qualification is a job for all of us not ‘the old boy’s club’.
To maintain that all inspectors should be made to qualify and re-qualify flies in the face of logic. Neither you, OAHI, nor the government can disqualify experienced inspectors while at the same time saying that just because “Joe Newbee” has passed some sort of exam he does qualify. This is the same issue that reportedly has many R.H.I.'s in revolt against O.A.H.I.'s support for the national.
To discount any successful inspector’s wealth of experience in the market place is a reciepe for disaster. To attack ‘grandfathering’ with the argument that it will let anyone obtain a lisence is disingenuous at the least and probably conceals a hidden agenda.
I do not disagree that there are many qualified home inspectors. However, we seem to agree that there is a need for some accountability through better house keeping. I prefer to call it “culling” like culling the herd. Not a farmer - but remember - sick cows or mad cow. Some are not fit for consumption, but more so dangerous to our occupation. So that is why I feel there is a need for a background review. Some even suggest with licensing - criminal background check - after all we are in homes and we must instill trust in more ways than experience and education. Interesting enough al lot of the issue of background check comes from Realtors - can you figure out why?
I am for licensing - if it it is done properly and leaves the influence and politics at the door. However, regardless of who promotes it - becomes the bigger issue or decision of how licensing gets directed. I have seen too many bad examples of licensing and influence that follows it.
First licensing will not happen unless there are number to support it. Second of all there needs be a huge outcry from consumers. It’s not quite there yet. Even if it is watch out for those that will want to take control of it! Not just fellow home inspectors but other powers of influence, again many examples of that are abound in the U.S.
If it does come about it needs representation not just of home inspectors but more importantly by other stakeholders - mainly the public and consumers. Without a balance of representation at the table, it becomes yet another home inspection bureaucracy - run by power brokers. So I support licensing - as long as “we” all have a say in it, and can live with it!
I would strongly suggest that any form of licencing also provide a council made up of home inspectors and a few lay persons. No more self interests or cover ups, or conflicts by incompetent directors who don’t know their a s s from their elbows! 
And before OAHI does anything they should be fully audited. Oahi has not consulted the membership on the appointment, and no one sought approval of expenditure to hire Mr. LeBlanc as per the by-laws for expenditures over $6500. But Oahi has never been good at math.