HI Licensing coming to Washington State

Perhaps you could enlist James Busharts and/or NACHI’s help in correcting what is truly faulty legislation hurting WA HI’s.

At this time I do not know what the consensus is among those who would like to be the “squeaky wheel.” Squeaky can be pro or con - right?

Right good point Dennis.

Thanks.
\:D/ =D> :-;; :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Dennis, I have no problem with you disagreeing with me. If SPI licensing and the insurance requirements are too much for some part time inspectors, how is that a downside for me? The insurance is a cost of doing business in WA. If someone can’t afford to be in business that’s just more business for me. Are you for licensing?

James, I disagreed with your claim that the playing field will be leveled - did you mean to say you don’t want to have to compete based on your KSA’s, you prefer the state to guarantee you an income? Leveling the playing field is not your real goal - is that right? (KSA=Knowledge, Skills, Abilities)
Nothing personal, your attitude (opinion) is shared by many and if state legislators have been deceived to believe you support this for the benefit of the consumer - good for you, you have a good thing going! Again, you are one of many and no hard feelings held on my part (I just couldn’t sleep at night if I supported this.) :slight_smile:
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Once again Dennis I will say: I’m against further regulation. As far as my KSA’s(?) go, I’m quite confident. I have no problem competing against people on that basis. On the other hand I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want all HI’s in Washington to play under the same rules already on the books. If a HI doesn’t have an SPI license and the required insurance he/she is not doing legal inspections.
How does that equate to the state guaranteeing my income?

James: isn’t the pretense underwhich the law was adopted important here - to protect your income rather than for the benefit of the consumer? You support a law that only servers to keep competition out of your arena, and then condemn those who see the hypocrisy in law. If “not doing legal inspections” bothers you, why are you okay with supporting an unethical law? Good Americans do what the law tells them - right? Ever drive over the speed limit? If so you have committed an ‘illegal act.’ By your own implication this makes you a bad american. I bet this is okay with you as well - yet not okay if a HI prefers not to be a part of the WDO profession?
The state guarantees your income by reducing your competition through legislation - as you previously stated in your post “more money for me.” THIS IS WHY YOU APPROVE OF THE LAW - not because it is FAIR! No offense meant - just my opinion (those dime-a-dozen thoughts that everyone has.)

What I consider being a ‘good American’ could be a whole other thread. The point I’m trying to make is that the regulations regarding SPI are on the book and you way as well accept them as a cost of doing business in the state.
Applying these rules to a home inspection is good for the homebuying public. For example: The home inspection reveals leaking plumbing that has soaked the sub-flooring and joists , you call it out as a potential for carpenter ants termites, etc and because you have the training, you can look for an infestation. You might say, a termite inspector has more training (may or may not be the case), but if you ignored the implications of the leaking plumbing during the inspection or there was an active carpenter ant nest which you didn’t find, how is that good for the public?
If you want to change the rules, go ahead and try. Until you do though, you may as well accept them as a part of being a HI in WA.

Instead of addressing this with more and more legislation, why not apply the same amount of effort and rationale to have the existing law repealed?

James,

I agree with you, in fact I use the lack of SPI Licensing by some HI’s , in Spokane by the way, as a Marketing tool, I don’t name any INspector by name but I do explain to both my clients and the Realtors about the WA. State Law, I detest the SPI Requirement and me and Dr. Soumi have gone around and around over it, but until we can get it changed its here, and according to Dr. Soumi’s Office its about to begin being enforced…Dennis believes its a Gray Area…like stopping at stop signs, and obeying the speed limit, but I think its more like having the drivers license itself…and because of the extra cost of my Occurance Insurance required because of the SPI License, I will lose money this year, but does anyone really expect not to in their first year of business especially in a slowing Real Estate Market, Next year I hope to break even, and then start making some money…if I don’t go sailing again…

Here’s a link to the latest information I can find on the Washington State HI licensing Advisory Group
http://www.tijonline.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3438

Click on the Letter of Introduction button.

From what I hear they don’t plan to have a proposal done until sometime in 08’, maybe late 07’ at the earliest, and yes they are addressing the Pest Inspection Issue…like someone already posted Jerry Domagala is the NACHI REp, maybe he could inform us on what is going on…

I and most inspectors in the state are already following the rules as they are. We’ve made the neccesary investment in our businesses, so why would we want to repeal it for those who refuse to follow the law?
I do not see why we would want to have additional legislation either. While I’m all for establishing a standard, I don’t see that happening in other states with regulations. If there was a way to pass a law that would weed out all the bad inspectors and thus elevate our profession, I’d be all for it. But for now, we’ll just have to let them fail on their own.

Good point.

An earlier post, however, noted the need to make the existing law consistent “across the board” or words to that effect by proposing additional legislation. I was suggesting that repealing the existing law, as opposed to creating additional laws, might make more sense toward that end.

James,

Washington State is a huge Agriculture State that has an equally huge Pesticide Industry, it was the Pesticide their WDO/WDI Treatment companies that got this law passed in the first place, not any Home Inspection Organization, Realtor, or Politician run amok…

There is No Law in Washington State that requires a WDO/WDI Inspection on the sale of a home and the Realtors in Washington, even more powerful than the Pesticide Idustry, stopped any attempt to get one passed.

The Pesticide guys then pushed a law through that required any Home that was INSPECTED by a professional HI during the sale or transfer …to have a WDI/WDO Inspection and to save them even more money and to guarantee referrals they made the HI responsible for the initial Inspection…pretty cute.

Thsi law was passed back in 92’ I believe, but never really made the news until the Home Inspection business began to grow so rapidly in the past few years…what we need to repeal it or change it is to get organized as a Home Inspection Industry and use our combined peor to pressure the State Politicians into changing it…there is an Advisory Group with members from every organization working on this now, looking at different proposals and especially at other States HI Licensing Laws in an attempt not to repeat someone elses mistakes. Part of the proposal, as I understand, will be to do away with the WSDA’s regulation and to include in the proposed licensing bill the requirement for HI’s to Refer any WDO/WDI damage to Licensed Pest Control Companies…which the way I read most HI organizations SOPs, we already do…the Majority of HI’s in Washington are still the Independents so who knows what their SOp’s are.

On the other hand we are stuck with a Law that very few HI’s like, but ignoring it like Dennis and Wendy do is not going to get it changed…Dennis believes that by cheating his Competition, who obey a law they don’t like, is being Patriotic…if he wants to be Patriotic he should organize the other 16 NACHI Members in the Spokane area to do something to repeal it, in the meantime as one of the 3 SPI Licensed NACHI Members in the same area, I will use their lack of License and refusal to obey the NACHI COE as a Marketing tool against them, stll not mentioning any names, but just advising people of the Law.

Dennis, Wendy and others may want to check out their E&O Insurance, if they carry any, and see if they are covered when they are in violation of both State Law and the NACHI COE…I’d bet they weren’t

I and most inspectors in the state are already following the rules as they are.>>>>

James,

I haven’t done a Number count on “most inspectors”, but very few of the NACHI Inspectors you find when using NACHI’s Inspectorseek show up on the WSDA’s list of Licensed SPI’s, in Eastern Washington it’s only 3 out of 18 who have an SPI License, I started checking the numbers in Western WA but there are way to many, yet from the numbers I checked they are very similiar…ASHI in Eastern WA on the other hand has 16 out of 19 Liciensed, including their candidates.

I agree. This would not necessarily require more legislation, IMO, but a concentrated effort much as you described.

Frankly, I actually appreciate having an SPI license. I personally can’t imagine doing a home inspection and not talking about conducive conditions. It makes sense to me to provide WDO information for my clients. Why send the money for WDO to someone else?

If the law was written the way other states license their home inspectors, you wouldn’t be prevented from giving information on conducive conditions to your clients. You would then refer it to a specialist just like any other conditions like electrical, plumbing etc.

What interests me is no one addresses the lack of training in HI/WDO inspectors.

It seems very dishonest to me for HI’s to advertise that they are proficient in the field of WDO’s after studying a tiny booklet and taking a test and paying $40-$45. The truth is, they are learning as they go and no one is there to make sure they are accurate and not missing anything.

**Lewis Capaul of Rathrum, Id: **
**I will be kind to you this time - that is to I will forgive your ignorance. **
**In your last post you made PUBLIC statement about the way I do business THAT IS NOT TRUE. Your statement could affect my business and certainly affects the respect i receive from fellow HI’s. Here is what you said: "… **we are stuck with a Law that very few HI’s like, but ignoring it like Dennis … " bY

The WAC that controls us, is WAC 16-228-2005 thru 2060. It is a result of of a LAW that was passed in 2003. SHB 1269. It was passed by the Washington State House of Representatives 94-0 with 4 excused. It went to the Washington State Senate where it was passed 44-1 with 4 excused. The BILL was signed by the Governor on May 9, 2003 and was effective July 1, 2003. IT IS A LAW. DULY PASSED BY OUR GOVERNMENT. On a total vote of our elected representatives of 138-1 with 8 excused. Not even close. Once that bill was passed, The Department of Agriculture was given directions on how to proceed.

The Dept of Ag is just starting the process of verifying Home Inspector compliance. Everyone should be expecting to confirm their WSDA license number upon demand. Those that don’t, may lose money, may lose business, may lose the right to practice in the future. I guess you just have to ask yourself, is it really worth not having the license? Will your insurance protect you if you have failed to follow state law? or the COE/SOP of your organization?

Then there is the subject of future Home Inspector licensing. If a group puts just about any legislation together and markets it to this state legislature as “consumer protection”, it will pass. That is the way they think. Protection Good, Consumer Good, Must Protect. Sounds like Star Trek writing. My only concern with new legislation is that it does not force us to join another damn society, club, association, group, cohort, cluster, society, club or union and does not force us to follow the rules, bylaws, constitution, SOP, or COE of any one specific group. :shock::shock::shock::shock::shock: