In Orlando you can get a wavier from the state.
NC does not issue waivers, they assume builders are intelligent enough to read the law and understand why WC from a sole proprietor or one man LLC with less than three employees does not help them one single iota.
*Builders don’t like us because alot of us think we are code inspectors. Unless we are ICC certified we have no business pointing out code violations. Even then you should still have a license within that trade to declare a code violation. It clearly states in our SOP that we are not there to verify code or regulations. Unless your ICC certified I wouldn’t mess with a builder in that arena. They will win everytime. Remember we are generalist inspectors nothing more. Dig to deep your going to get burned. If I feel I see a code violation I explain what I see and if it needs further evaluation I tell my client it’s in their best interest to have it looked at by a licensed tech. I never say it’s required. *
Exactly, thats why a good inspector must have good report writing skills and understand that reporting something that is not done as per the manufacturers instructions IS NOT actually reporting a code violation. Your opinion based on your own knowledge and resources is allowed and necessary to excell in this business.
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*That way the ball is in their court and they can bounce it however they want. I never refer to any referrences specially stating what the code should be. That’s up to the specialist with a license not me. As for workman’s comp. Honestly, I don’t know what your state law dictates. *
It dictates that no WC is required of me period.
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*Personally every one here is right IMO. The builder owns the land and the house. No one can dictate that they must let a contractor onto their land without insurance. *
I’m not a contractor on the project, WC only applies to people on the contractors payroll or subs of those people.
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*I agree 100%. My thought here was in reference to GL. I can see where a builder might want you as a independent contractor who has no relations with his business to have GL in case you injured one of his workers while performing your work. Why he told you WC I’m still lost. Maybe he was confused. *
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*Why they told you the insurance company requires it I have no idea. Honestly, I think the builder is requiring it so it limits his or her risk if you happen to fall of the roof or anything else. *
The builders insurance company told me that NOTHING limits the builders liability if anyone gets hurt on the property. They are liable period and have their own insurance to control that liability. WC does not help them if I get hurt so why would they require it?
Honestly again I can’t make sense of it either. I personally would call and ask for an explanation after you tell them your findings. See what they say then.
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Honestly I don’t think anyone is going to help you on this for the simple fact I don’t think they done anything illegal except for lie to you and their client which is stupid and makes for bad business.
Exactly, thats why I may have to use advertising to expose this ordeal to the general public.
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– You may encounter a slander lawsuit. JMO… Follow the advice of above and call these people first.
bill
Bill, you copied my last post into the prev post without adding anything…
Yea I know just fixed it. lol. Almost bed time for me. Starting to see things. 
I’m kind of with Dan on this one. The thing to do, which might be difficult, is get the buyer to demand that they can hire their own inspector, WC or no WC. When they’re denied that privilege, have them take that to the media, the State, and whoever else will listen.
Home builders are having trouble selling. They should threaten to walk.
When you talk to the client, demand to be treated fairly like the real estate agent. See her/his WC policy.
tom
That was my other thought, get them to back out of the deal on the grounds they can’t trust the builder since they’re making it almost impossible to choose their own inspector.
Most buyers get too emotionally involved buying a house to make that a viable alternative.
Down here in Florida when the market was going up the builders wanted the clients to walk
Real simple the client puts money on the table - The price is set - The builder has two years to build - The price goes up - The client walks - The builder makes more money selling the home again
Problem is that it does not work in todays market
How to beat the car - truck insurance - use a taxie (did it one time)
How to beat the GL insurance if you don’t have it and don’t want it-----You are NOT an inspector under contract to the buyer for a fee. You are just helping out a friend. And yes you are payed to write a report but not to inspect.
How to inspect the home when contractor will not even let the buyer see it
Have the contractor give you a tour of the home so the client will stay on board and not walk.
Right now contractors do not want a buyer to walk. The have even cleaned up some of their contracts to the point that you can’t get out of them short of them not building to the floorplan that you paid for.
The walk through punch list is not going to stop the sale - Just slow it down a little
At this time I am welcomed on site by the contractors – Not true in the past.
I also do draw inspections so they sometimes like me because I am their pay check. Even if not for that house maybe the next house
----------In short don’t piss of Santa----------
Funny how times are changing
rlb
I’d talk to my attorney about sending a cease & desist letter to the builder for tortious interference in the contract between me and my client. If this builder is blocking other inspectors in the area you could also talk to the attorney about the merits of a class action.
You should have general liability insurance and be willing to show the builder proof of it. This covers any damage you might do to the builder’s property while you are on site, or if you cause injury to any person while you are there. This should be the only insurance that the builder could reasonably require of you.
You’re not an employee or an independent contractor hired by the builder so you are not insured under the builder’s workers comp. You have no employees so you are not required to have (and probably could not get) your own workers comp. You’re a visitor on the builder’s property, just like the real estate agent, home buyers & shoppers, or materials delivery people. If you get injured or if they drop a truss on your truck it should be covered by the builder’s general liability insurance (that’s why he has it). You might also have your own personal medical and disability insurance to cover the risk of injury to you and the economic loss to your family.
I don’t think the media will care about this story unless you have some teary-eyed families that either bought lemons, or were denied the opportunity to buy their dream home, because the builder prevented an inspection of the property.
I arranged a series of actions that all fell into place, probably could not pull this off again if I tried.
Here is part of what I did:
Had a homebuyer that really wanted me to inspect their new home call the builder and ask questions about why I could not do it.
Advised the builder that I would take actions to ensure the general public knows all about this bogus WC requirement.
Soon thereafter, got a phone call from builder, ok to do the inspection, met the manager at the house where he agreed to type up a waiver for the WC as long as inspectors meet the 1 mil GL requirement.
Win some lose some but won this one.
It did take about 20 hours of total work but it was worth it.
Still have a few ace’s in the hole if the waiver does not stay available in the future.
Way to go Bruce. I hope this carries over. Keep up the effort.
1 mil GL? Who carries that?
I sure do, for less than $300 a year.
Would you please share who you are with? I pay more than twice that for a third of the coverage.
I’m with Nationwide.
1 mil GL is free from FREA when you have E&O with them, or at least when I renewed this year.
Thanks Brian. I just shot my independent agent an e-mail. Wish I could give you another greenie, but I’ve got to spread the reputation around some more first.