I know that you want what is best for Florida home inspectors. I know that in the end we all want the same thing. We just don’t agree on how to get there. Nothing would make me happier than for all to come to agreement and work towards the goals that we have.
I do agree that Mr. Bertsch is our best option of accomplishing our goals this year. Changing your general just before D-Day isn’t the smartest move to make. But at the Melbourne meeting last month Nick choose not support the Coalition and Mr. Bertsch is the coalition. I don’t know how the coalition and Mr. Bertsch are going to survive without financial support from NACHI.
Hopefully that will be one of the questions answered at the meeting.
Nice web site. I can see that you put some work into it.
I see that you are the treasurer of FLNACHI. Will you be bringing the financial records of the chapter to the meeting? I know that many there want to see how much of a war chest the chapter has been able to acquire to help with the legislative tasks we are faced with.
I am happy to see that someone finally got flnachi.org. I checked it in July 10 and saw that it was available. I let it stay as I knew one of you would finally get around to getting it.
Just one more question for you this evening and then I will stop for the day.
Who advised you to take the stance that you have regarding endorsement?
No one has advised me on anything. I looked at the allegations that have been made. I did my own investigating. I believe that Mr. Bertsch should be heard.
I have also done some research and found that the lobbyists for the Building Officials Association of Florida which is one of the three groups that want this bill passed is David Ramba. He is lobbying for the passage of this bill for his current client (BOA). He would not be a good candidate as a lobbyist for the Home Inspectors of Florida because it is a clear conflict of interest on his behalf.
Working together for all the Home Inspectors of Florida
With that being the case I would say that Mr Ramba is doing a favor for the FHBA with adding division 1 contractors to his language.
Did you know that a division 1 contractor can obtain full member status in FABI with just their license? So that tells me that FABI and the FHBA have common ground.
Do you know who the registered lobbyist is for FABI?
Would it surprise you to learn that it is Wayne Bertsch.
Did you also know that FABI’s representative on the FHIC board has been a long term member of the FHBA.
That is not true. They still have to pass the proctored exam, which very few people pass on the first try and have their inspection report approved by the Membership Committee. The only exemption the get is that they do not have to prove 250 inspections.
I would agree with Greg that we have more in common with BOAF and ICC than we have with FHBA and Div. 1 contractors. At least Florida Licensed Building Inspectors and ICC certified Inspectors are PROFESSIONAL INSPECTORS. Personally, I have no problem allowing them to qualify by endorsement for a home inspector license and will support that initiative. I also think we should be reaching out to BOAF and ICC in a effort to get their support for our issues Their ethics standards line up with ours.
The training and education that a home inspector receives is distinct from code officials and ICC certificate holders. Only the Home Inspector receives training on systems and components that may span 100 years. In many cases Home Inspectors are trained to identify issues that predate even his or her birth.
The contrary is true for code officials and ICC certificate holders; they deal only with the current building code.
The myriad of things they are not educated in would do the consumer as well as the Home Inspection profession an injustice, should they be allowed to be licensed without the required education.
There is actually nothing stopping them from taking the required courses and tests to become Home Inspectors.
Apart from not being trained adequately, the licensing by endorsement would flood the Home Inspection field with part-time weekend unqualified inspectors.
This bill and its endorsements will do much harm to all Home Inspectors, and in particular the struggling Home Inspector. These other groups will use their credentials, which sound impressive to secure jobs that you should perform. Remember, the Home Inspector Florida State License is a new, relatively unknown credential, to the public. That alone puts us at a disadvantage. This bill will stack the deck against us.
Florida InterNACHI has already enabled many hundreds of inspectors to be licensed by the state in less than a year. Our goal at Florida InterNACHI is for the betterment of the Home Inspector profession not to do harm, as this bill will do.
I hate to be the one to inform you that the deck is already stacked against the professional home inspector with the current licensing law that we have now. While you raise some valid points, the professional home inspector’s code of ethics lines up more closely with code professionals than with the Div. 1 contractors who are not bound in our law by the same ethics provisions that we are. I would much rather be competing against another inspector (code certified) who abides by the same ethics provisions that we do than against a Div. 1 contractor who does not and has the ability to offer free or loss leader inspections and then recoup those fees on the back end of the transaction with repairs. With that said, I would rather work with BOAF and ICC than have them work against us.
So your trying to tell me that FLNACHI giving the EXACT same test that is online is bettering our industry? You protect this profession so much that you couldn’t take a few hours and write a new test? Are you serious?
Just tell it like it is, someone saw a chance to make some cake and they took it. I am OK with that. You can lie to me, I know I am being lied to, but to try and talk yourself into is just crazy!
There is no online version of our exam. There are over 4 billion online versions. We ran a check last year for laughs and not only has no one person taken the same exam twice, but the same exam has never even been administered twice.
Also, to join Florida InterNACHI, you have to be a member of InterNACHI, which means you had to pass our online exam. Everyone who took the proctored exam, already passed a version of it unproctored at least once.
Technically… no one took our proctored exam. They re-took a proctored version of an exam they previously passed. Big waste if you ask me, but I’m not a Florida legislator, sexually obsessed with proctoring.
Nick when you take a proctored exam and its ALMOST exactly, some MINOR changes present to the test that is online, is it really a test of a persons knowledge or memory?
Just ask the people who have taken it, they laugh at it.
Neither. Adding proctoring doesn’t change any exam, it only PROVES you were the one who took it. I didn’t want it proctored as our members already passed it. Passing it a second time is a big waste. Besides, InterNACHI doesn’t rely on one exam anyway.
My point was that it wasn’t ANY different that what is given online. Meaning that I could have taken the test 10 times at home without knowing ANYTHING and then walk in and see a majority of the same questions enough to pass the test.
Want to bet money on it? I will get a person who has NEVER completed a mold inspection to pass the test with only 1 day preperation…
