Meeting in Tallahassee

[rhensel (Russell Hensel)]

For?

[rhensel (Russell Hensel)]

You still cannot assess mold…you can’t discuss it, you can’t do anything, but take a sample and send it in and you can’t explain the results. So what good is that? Its like doing a home inspection and not telling them whats wrong with the house and giving them a piece of paper that says “GROMICKO HOME INSPECTION”.

Following information is provided by Gromicko Home Inspections.

Home has some problems but I can’t tell you what they are and what to do
The End

Lets take it a bit further. Lets have someone without a mold assesors license do a mold test and send me the findings and explain them to me and what you saw. Someone like Ben, he has a Home Inspector license and NOT a mold assesors license and then let me turn them into the DBPR and lets see what they do. Fair enough?

[hcarvajal (Humberto Carvajal, HI884)]

Russell good to see you posting again.

Bert

[bgraham (Bruce Graham, III, CMI)]

Good to see he is still a member, there was a nasty rumor floating around

[jshishilla (John Shishilla)]

Here is another inspector’s view of the meeting:

Gentlemen,

This past Thursday, a group of us from the Florida Home Inspectors Council travelled (at our own expense) to Tallahassee to meet with folks from the DBPR.

Attendees included myself, Bob Farr, John Tremper, Bill Jurek and John Shishilla.

Attending from the DBPR: G.W. Harrell and Rick Morrision.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the failure of the dept. to implement rules and standards of practice for 2 years after licensing began.

The excuses for this started with Gov. Scott’s ban on new rules, which lasted about 6 months after he got elected. The next excuse was that they have gone through 2 attorneys for rules. They have no excuse for why the 3rd attorney hasn’t been able to get this all going. (That person didn’t show up for the meeting.)

The process for approval of the rules is:

Preparation of a statement of regulatory costs (supposedly in progress.)
Goes to governor’s office and OFAR and ombudsman’s office
Noticed in Florida Administrative Weekly
Address challenges
Goes to legislative committee that approves all new regulations.
If financial impact is over $1,000,000.00, then it has to go to the full legislature for approval. (This appears likely.)

As you can imagine, this isn’t happening any time soon. They have no timeline for this.

My impression is that these folks don’t really care one way or the other, and they are in no hurry to do anything, ever.

We also discussed the possibility of formation of a Board. They were lukewarm on that idea and said they would take direction from the Governor’s office regarding that. (We would have to address this legislatively, which means more campaign contributions.)

We also discussed a request for a Declaratory statement regarding mold inspection that I submitted more than a year ago. They acted as if they had never seen it.

We discussed the number of complaints for the year starting 7/1/11 through 7/1/12. They total of legally sufficient complaints against the 7000 licensed home inspectors was 21. No citations have been filed. 1 case has been mediated. They had no idea how the other cases have or have not been disposed of.

In summary, in spite of collecting more than $2,000,000.00 in licensing fees, the department has done little or nothing for home inspectors or the public and they are in no hurry to do so. Welcome to the wonderful world of government regulation.

Mark Cramer

I think that sums it up well.

[hcarvajal (Humberto Carvajal, HI884)]

Very thorough synopsis of what took place. Thanks for posting John.

Bert

[jshishilla (John Shishilla)]

@hcarvajal

Very thorough synopsis of what took place. Thanks for posting John.

Bert

That is why I posted it.

[evandeven (Eric Van De Ven, CMI)]

The excuses for this started with Gov. Scott’s ban on new rules, which lasted about 6 months after he got elected. The next excuse was that they have gone through 2 attorneys for rules. They have no excuse for why the 3rd attorney hasn’t been able to get this all going. (That person didn’t show up for the meeting.)

The underlined portion is what is relevant here. It illustrates the lackadaisical attitude from the administration which is merely present to collect fees. As long as this regime is in charge, just keep writing the checks and watch the money vanish.

Maybe it is me, but it seems everything in this State gets done backwards, when the government is involved.

[jburkeson1 (Joseph Burkeson, CMI)]

Maybe the DBPR knows that Governor Scott has plans to dismantle the mold/home inspector licensing prior to the 2014 renewal. One can only hope.

[evandeven (Eric Van De Ven, CMI)]

@jburkeson1

Maybe the DBPR knows that Governor Scott has plans to dismantle the mold/home inspector licensing prior to the 2014 renewal. One can only hope.

Do you think he would throw away those licensing fees? I am sure, somehow, he is getting his share.

[wcollier (Wayne Collier, HI5099)]

@rhensel

You still cannot assess mold…you can’t discuss it, you can’t do anything, but take a sample and send it in and you can’t explain the results. So what good is that? Its like doing a home inspection and not telling them whats wrong with the house and giving them a piece of paper that says “GROMICKO HOME INSPECTION”.

Following information is provided by Gromicko Home Inspections.

Home has some problems but I can’t tell you what they are and what to do
The End

Lets take it a bit further. Lets have someone without a mold assesors license do a mold test and send me the findings and explain them to me and what you saw. Someone like Ben, he has a Home Inspector license and NOT a mold assesors license and then let me turn them into the DBPR and lets see what they do. Fair enough?

Also from what I see a home can be covered in mold but as long as I carve out a 10 sq ft section and test it I basically tested the whole house?

[evandeven (Eric Van De Ven, CMI)]

@wcollier

Also from what I see a home can be covered in mold but as long as I carve out a 10 sq ft section and test it I basically tested the whole house?

Do it 10 feet at a time. :mrgreen:

[jshishilla (John Shishilla)]

@wcollier

Also from what I see a home can be covered in mold but as long as I carve out a 10 sq ft section and test it I basically tested the whole house?

And you would be putting your license at risk.

"Sir, did you see more than 10 sq ft of Mold?’

“Yes”

Case closed.

[hcarvajal (Humberto Carvajal, HI884)]

John but, he can always say… He only tested 10’ sf of it so, the other 600’ sf that “looked” like mold was never truly identified as mold! :mrgreen:

Bert

[wcollier (Wayne Collier, HI5099)]

That’s the way I see it. So I test a 10 sq ft section and the client can draw a logical conclusion anyway. My dsiclaimer would clearly state the parameters involved if I by chance do this at some point. It sounds like they are giving us enough to work with or hang us. But either way a good lawyer would blow holes all in it. How do you want to word it today?

[jmurray4 (Jay C. Murray)]

@jshishilla

And you would be putting your license at risk.

"Sir, did you see more than 10 sq ft of Mold?’

“Yes”

Case closed.

Yes, and we referred the client to a licensed mold remediator. Just as when we inspected the _____ and discovered ________ and referred the client to a licensed_______.

John’s point is valid. If your going to sample mold. Get trained. You better know what your doing and don’t be afraid to refer the problem to an expert. There are plenty of Mold Assessors and Mold Remediators that do not do HI. Form a relationship. If the problem is greater than 10’, get them involved.

Just my 2 cents.

[wcollier (Wayne Collier, HI5099)]

Good info. I keep at least two close by and we have a good working relationship. I prefer not to even get invloved but at least we know our limits. My network includes plenty of people I can call for just about anything. The one thing I always tell people, “if I can’t do it I know somebody who can”:mrgreen: