Yesterday, I made the my licence application. How long will it take to get a response from the government? I will let you know.
The main problem was getting the bond & insurance documents from Kim Smith. She is very, very slow. My Bonding & E.O. insurance was approved over three weeks ago.
If you are a CMI or RHI you can make your application after September 1, and obtain a licence.
If you are in the “Conditional” category, it seems to me is that on September 1, these provisions end with no further conditional inspectors.
What ever category you are in, it will take time to prepare all the documents needed to make an application and obtain your licence.
John, I think you are right about the interim licence. What surprises and bothers me is the lack of applicants that have called for a peer review. So far 4 CCHI’s and I think 10 via cannachi’s tipr. Thats only 14 out of 240 members that we had when this whole fiasco started. 35 CMI’s last week end.
Vern.
Maybe there’s a lot of inspectors (part time) who do not have insurance and are having problems paying for it.
I think there is going to be attrition of inspectors?
One of the problems discussed behind the scenes in red deer (amongst new start ups) was the schedule, most of the guys had invested and educated themselves over the winter and spring with the intention of firing up juring the summer, most before the meeting planned on going for the 25 paid inspections and do the peer review, and get the insurance etc, till it was realized that if the 25 werent met , they would still have to pay insurance for 2 years, as the one older guy (who spoke) and mentioned to scott it was a crap shoot and could cost him 4-5 thousand a year for 2 years, Scotts answer was dont pay your premiums and see how long they cover you, that was not a good answer, most own homes etc, bad credit if you dont pay, aside from the new start ups, I know an HI who immediately (after the meet) called for insurance based on a conditional license and waited for 3 weeks for a reply, he did not get one, he assumed they did not want the business, others are tired of paying for education and waiting to see what gets approved. many have the CanNachi and Inachi courses completed (you still have to take the CD on a conditional) bottom line seems to be there was not enough time for sept 1st, I have heard BC gave 3 years to get things in order, I am sure others have decided( after the meet) to just do the CD and get it over with and get the full license, every one is in a different situation, some are optimistic that INACHI course will be approved. anyways, In my situation, I first did half the CD 6 years ago , (used set) have worked out a fee if needed with CD for 1500$ for rights to exams, diploma etc, combined with INACHI hours plus inspections will put me into full license or CMI category , I have spoke to another in the same situation, this is just my input based on conversations I have had , please dont jump at me for the CD thing, I jumped ship to the Inachi courses because I thought them to be more up to date, but unless INACHI gets approval it is my best bet .
How many of you guys are going to vote for these SOB’s in the next election?
They have basically put 175 to 200 HI’s out of business. Nice business friendly government.
What’s really sick is the CD course will give all newbies a licence without benefit of an association or any experience.
Anyways, I just read an Ontario advertisement this morning, the person was announcing they will be completing the CD course this week, that he has a web site and cards and will be ready for work Monday,(real young guy, no background) this was an Ontario ad, but just the same . Bow valley college and Academy of learning in Calgary, as well as SAIT are offering the course, both cheaper than SAIT . I always remind myself the license requirements are CAHPI membership requirements, at the same time there structure is falling apart in BC.
I think for CMI and RHI, the 3 month time frame is do-able, but for many is not, in any business, I have a friend in another industry which is going to experience changes, he was given a year notice to prepare. either way I plan on working off the INACHI SOP. thanks.
Vern can tell us how long this license process has been going on. At least four years that I know.
Members of InterNACHI where well informed of the process, probably also CAPHI members.
People wanting to work in an industry should be involved in the industry group(s) that represent them. If you go-alone you can miss out.
If a person went to a Home Inspector school or bought a franchise in the past year and where not told on the upcoming license requirements should look at getting there money back.
As to “Conditional Inspectors” and insurance.
I obtained a bond & insurance quote from Kim Smith in days of application. What took three weeks was the documentation that was needed to apply for a license. She was slow in this respect. As a CMI I got an insurance discount.
If you are still looking for insurance & bonding talk to Kim or Chuck McKenna.
When I started in this business, with no experience, I obtained insurance with no major problem.
Lets remember, at this time there are three ways to obtain a license.
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- You are a CMI or RHI.
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- You have 25 paid inspections. With or without education.
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- After Sept. 1, you have the required education. No mention of paid inspections.
The government now requires an inspector to be licensed, this will not change.
What can change is the license regulation.
Alberta InterNachi licensed inspectors need to provide constructive criticism to the government. The operative word is CONSTRUCTIVE.
- After Sept. 1, you have the required education. No mention of paid inspections.
With all due respect, there has been franchises sold this year in Alberta with no mention of what was going on, and there is a specific Canadian HI school which has collected thousands of dollars off Albertans with no mention of what was going on , as far as AlbertaNachi members being well informed, yes, that licensing was in the works, but not the details,when were the details released, may, no one had a crystal ball, none of my comments are negative towards INACHI or AlbertaNachi, because the truth is , even without meeting license requirements its one hell of a service for the yearly membership fees , of the guys I have spoken to, no one is poor me, woe me, just that they would not meet the Sept 1st deadline, familys , mortgages, license fees, high insurance, peer review fees, not enough time, if the government would have set the date as Jan 1st 2012, I believe not many would have been affected , some day the whole country will be licensed and it will be clear in each province what the requirements are, in advance, just like any other trade or profession , if it wasnt for those that fought for CMI in Alberta , there would be many more in a mad scramble right now.
Chris.
As I said in my earlier message. If you bought a franchise or a weekend home inspection course in the past year or so and where not told about the coming of Alberta licenses then sue.
Inspectors with no or minimal insurance and no recognized training have kept inspection fees low.
From the June 16 Red Deer meeting, it took me to July 22 to have my application for licence into the government. This was not a full time exercise and I created a new inspection contract and found a new insurance provider. My old insurance provider was FREA and they did not provide $2mil. aggregate coverage.
My total bonding, insurance and license fees are $3,128.00 and I could save $473.00 if I dropped the liability insurance. Not required by the government. This is not a major change to what I was paying before.
None of the above would have changed if I was given 6 or 12 months to do it.
Again, what i said before we cannot change the license requirements only the regulations.
i will start a new message on what members think should be changed in the regulations. They can then be presented to the government for consideration. The government person at the Red Deer meeting indicated they would consider changes and this is an opportunity to combine our efforts with CAPHI.
I for one do not see the requirement for the security bond.
What is in place now cannot or will not be changed before Sept 1. and if you want to be a home inspector in Alberta you will have to live with the rules now in place.
Thanks John, I agree on the bond, I havent bought a franchise or been ripped off on a weekend course, In this thread it was mentioned that there were not many peer reviews scheduled, and I mentioned every ones circumstance is different, I spent 2 weeks after the meeting weighing the pros and cons of which direction to go, based on what`s best for me as a business decision,as others are doing, I have always beleived in the INACHI course material, but felt the lack of proctored exams was not right .
I strongly agree with the proctored exams. We keep saying that CD is no good, then lets make ours better. There seems to be reluctance to do this (proctored) and as CD is approved by SAIT it will always be there. The government is not going to say CD is no good.
To John, No your right they will never say that, A while back when this all started I sent some comparisons (mistakes) in the CD material to the Alberta Government in support of INACHI courses, I got a defensive reply that the CD course is the highest regarded HI education out there, I am not knocking CD, like I said I was showing support for INACHI material, put the proctored exams on INACHI and I truly believe it will be the best source of HI , EDU, out there, especially combined with all the other additional support INACHI offers,(well rounded) at some point I suspect INACHI will take over the Holy Grail that CD presently holds in Canada, Just my opinion.
I am still waiting for my bond to come in the mail, I jumped on the requirments right away, The day I received the application from Kim is the day i filled it out and sent it back. The next morning I sent in the original and a check. Am I the only one still waiting or is everyone in the same boat. My application is dated June 26th so it is over a month now. The waiting is driving me crazy. I called and they said they mailed it out but could not give me a date.
Inachi will never have proctured exams in canada. I4U is the course Nick and Allen will provide. They make good money from it and for Nick there is no work involved except having to walk to the bank and cashing the check. I think that the Inachi courses are far superior to CD and from what I have heard I4U as well. I spoke with a guy the other day that took it and his only remark was that he would never let a friend take it. He thought for the money it was not worth it.
For CD or I4U?
I4U, thought the course was canadian compliant but was to easy. The instructors kept telling them that after the course if they needed anything to give them a call. After the course he could not get any help. The mock inspections were done by the instuctor more than the student and felt he was missing out on things.
Outside at the meeting in Red Deer , one of the Inspect4U past students was yelling to an Inspect4U rep, why don`t you guys return my calls. it had to do with his completed mock inspections.
For the first time, I went to the I4U web site.
With Nick Gromicko on a video clip & CMI logos on the site, it would seem to be an InterNACHI program wrapped in a Maple Leaf.
The course is $2,350.00, 228 hours, seven days in a class room. If you look at the curriculum a lot of the 228 hours is spent setting up a business & how to make telephone calls.
After Sept.1, if I am correct, you put down $2,350.00, perform a mock inspection with a I4U - CMI & you are a licensed home inspector in the provence of Alberta, not even conditional. How does this benefit the consumer?
A few comments to explain a few things.
Chris-- The reason no one new what was going on was that for me to get on the advisory committee I was blackmailed into agreeing to not repeat anything that was going on in the committee and what the government was planning. I completely disagree with these back room secret meetings this government does continously. It is standard practise and the only way it will ever change is to change the government. Until then expect more of the same. The reason the regulations are so bad and contradict itself is because they were written in secret and then announced in the legislature as a done deal. No public input, no debate and no vote to enact. These new rules enacted in secret and now law have diminished and taken away some more of our right and freedoms and will cost us all more money for no reason. The claim that it was to protect the consumer is false as the consumer complaints were very few and far between.
John-- To take the i4u, Allen told me last week that he is going to provide a CD with InterNACHI’s courses and the student does the course at home them attends the i4u classes. I think Nick gets a membership fee for each student hence the free years membership in InterNACHI.
The regulations do not require you to belong to any association so you are free to join any assoc you want to.
That is why I promoted the CCHI as a way to create status and marketability for our members. That is also why I moved the motion that was passed at the last meeting to make CCHI exclusive to members that have passed the CMI peer review. The i4u tipr (modelled on CAHPI) does not cut it. After the **BS **Nick has pulled over the last month I have come to the conclusion that we should promote our Alberta association as a stand along organization and work out some affiliation with outside groups be they InterNACHI CAHPI or some other compatible assoc. We will have some very serious decisions to be made in the future.
Well put Vern, you have my vote!!