Having built shopping centers, nursing facilities, warehouses, apartments, day care centers, office buildings, manufacturing facilitys and having been a commercial construction manager for TGI Fridays - AS well as residential home building - we’ve done commercial inspections for 22 years.
Not a lot - last year we did 16 commercial buildings. All under 100,000 sf
(2 car dealerships, 1 Three-story doctors office building, 1 manufacturing plant with 4 buldings, 3 restaurants with offices on 2nd floor and living areas on 3rd floor, etc). I don’t count apartments in my commercial applications.
Never had a complaint on a commercial inspection at all, EXCEPT for a seller or listing broker saying we’re too picky on a commercial building.
I’ve NEVER had a client, investor, lender, insurance company, realtor, etc ask me what (if any) standards I would follow.
We’ve done these in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Colorado and Conneticut.
The experience of building them provides you with the unique opportunity to inspect them…since you learned what to look for while the structure was going up. Inspectors without this experience will need an SOP that they can consistently apply in order to provide consistent reports.
The NACHI Commercial SOP is the only one written for that purpose. ATSM used to fill the void when it was the only one it town, but as Nick says, it has built in to it some unacceptable terms as well as the built in option of allowing it to be totally abandoned in favor of something the client and inspector agree to as they go along…which also increases liability.
A NACHI member has a choice to use whichever SOP he wishes. Nick is providing an incentive to those who chose to stick with the NACHI SOP. I see no harm being done to the industry or to any individual inspector by these actions.
It’s basic math: The amount of premium the underwriter (for basically all inspector E&O insurance in N. America) needs to insure all commercial inspections is a constant. For those who abide by http://nachi.org/comsop.htm to enjoy much lower premiums… those who don’t abide by it must pay higher premiums. Personally, I hope InterNACHI ComSop non-compliant inspector’s premiums goes through the roof so that it becomes unaffordable… that way… InterNACHI ComSop compliant inspector’s (Certified Commercial Inspector’s TM) premiums approach zero.
I’m only making sure I give our guys the option to get on the right side of this zero sum equation.
For years… I’ve been using this method of forcing the rest of the industry to pay for discounts that only InterNACHI members enjoy. See the vedor deals in www.InspectorMALL.com
I don’t see us abandoning this method any time soon. It works.
Brian, when I announced years ago that I would have exclusive E&O home inspection insurance deals for members only (deals, BTW, that save members far more than their $289 membership dues), we had people like you say
and call me
I proved them all wrong and now will do it for Certified Commercial Inspectors too.
BTW, many of those like Brian who suffer from Foot-In-The-Mouth disease and said it couldn’t be done back then… are still to this day, InterNACHI members who are saving thousands of dollars from the very programs that they said would never happen.
hyperbole:
A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis. Many everyday expressions are examples of hyperbole: tons of money, waiting for ages, a flood of tears,goes through the roof, approach zero etc. ;-)
What criteria will be used to determine if a home inspector is qualified to inspect multi-story commercial properties and the like? Following an SOP is not a skill set.
Erol…you sound as if one needs to have someone else tell him what he is qualified to do before he can do it. This mentality has taken over residential inspections in many states, but we don’t need to have it pollute the commercial realm, as well.
In some commercial classes you are taught the “inspection team” concept. In considering whether or not to tackle the job, you look at the complex and determine what expertise will be required that you lack. You hire others (calculated in your price) to assist you in that part of the inspection (three phase electrics, elevator systems, etc). In this application, the inspector leads a team.
JB is correct. The “inspection team” concept allows someone completely unqualified to perform a commercial inspection to offer a very competent commercial inspection service.
IMHO it is far easier to learn to offer commercial inspection services than to personally perform home inspections.
