I am one of the few individuals who introduced Home Inspections to Toronto in 1976, and who provided the service without governmental interference for more than thirty years.
Until 1976 real estate agents warmed up buns in the oven to create a homey smell, selected soft background music from the radio, and wasted no more than 30-minutes ushering prospective purchasers through the property to clinch a deal. No one cared about the interest of the purchaser, because all properties were merely sold under the motto “Caveat Emptor.”
To protect their turf, Realtors and their agents tried for years to suppress consumer requests for pre-purchase home inspections. Only the increase of lawsuits filed by deceived home buyers against Realtors or their agents brought finally a change in attitude at the beginning of the Eighties. But it soon became apparent that the change of mind was not meant to benefit the home buying public, but simply “to let somebody else take the heat.” Nothing has changed since then.
Trying to regulate a few hundred home inspectors to protect consumers against the conniving and entrenched sales techniques of the mighty real estate fraternity is not worth the effort unless the tens of thousands of real estate agents in Ontario are also prohibited from referring the services of any - and in particular - their preferred home inspectors.
Even though licensing of home inspectors might have its merits in general, it is my understanding that a similar exercise in British Columbia and Alberta has not brought the intended consumer protection. One can only hope that the Ontario Government will obtain advice from its governmental counterparts before the proposed legislation is being finalized and implemented.
Rudolf Reusse - Home Inspector since 1976 - Retired
Dear Mr. Reusse,
Thank you for taking the time to share your views regarding the development of potential qualifications for home inspectors in Ontario. The information you have provided is valuable and it will be considered by both our home inspector expert panel and ministry staff as we move forward on this project.
This summer, the ministry will establish an expert panel that will discuss potential qualification standards for home inspectors and determine how qualification standards could be administered. The panel will be focusing on topics that fall under four key themes including: Consumer Protection, Technical, Professional and Governance. The panel will meet several times this summer and fall. In late fall, they will submit a report to the government that includes recommendations on qualifications for home inspectors. The government will then share this report with the public and ask for comments.
As we move through the consultation process, we want to keep interested individuals up-to-date by sending bulletin emails. We will add your name to our distribution list. You can also use our dedicated home inspector email: homeinspectors@ontario.ca if you have further questions or information you would like to share with ministry staff or panel members who are working this file.
Thank you again,
Aimée Skelton
Sr. Policy Advisor
Ministry of Consumer Services
It appears to me that Consumer Services is slowly tweaking the perfect generic response back to certain individuals. Not saying this is a bad thing but a good thing as there are many Home Inspectors to answer too.
Each Home Inspector can be either private or along with another Association and so far this does not matter with the response returns to each individual.
What happens at the office stays at the office and is where the hard work will begin sifting through the e-mails as to importance.
Other thing I am not seeing this time is wrong media right out of the gate. So they must be doing something right.
Amazing what a little guidance can do by just the right people.
Amy Skelton is a Senior Policy Advisor? What is she advising on, how to respond with canned replies? How to say as little as possible in an email?
How to say the same thing a little differently each time? Or how not to say a whole lot but lip service?
Consumer protection? Who protects us from the bureaucrats who come up with the idea that consumers need protecting? Maybe we need to licence government workers eh?