In Illinois, the current Home Inspector Licensing Act sunsets on Jan 1, 2022. The new act is going up for a vote in the Illinois legislature.
There are some people in this state, mostly current or previous ASHI members, some of whom have joined NACHI, who put together a group (Illinois Hoe Inspector Association) to push for some changes in the new law.
A bit of background: In Illinois, licensing happens after a (minimum) 60 hour class work, passing a test at the school, performing 5 “inspection events” under the direct supervision of an inspector who has been licensed for at least 5 years, then taking the state exam.
NACHI has an on-line pre-licensing school which is very good, and it as standards that exceed the state requirements. BUT… The inspection event part has always been a problem. Many of those who do them treat them as just a ride-along where the candidate carries the tools. NACHI has supervising inspectors that they recommend, myself being included, and we try to make the events meaningful. I have requirements for the candidates that they must meet, including actually writing a report. I have flunked a number of candidates that cannot or will not meet these standards. But many of the supervising inspectors, including some that NACHI recommends, just breeze through them, collect their money from the candidate and send them on through.
So, with the law coming up for renewal, some of these people see that they can make even more money, doing a bad job of teaching, and have their jobs guaranteed by he state. They want the law changed so that the candidates who pass the state test only get an “apprentice” license. To get a full license, the apprentice would have to pass a practicum field test, and (no surprise here), the field test would be administered by the same people who run the schools who didn’t teach the candidates properly in the first place.
In other words, the schools and the supervising inspectors did not do their jobs, which they go paid for, properly so we will now have a new set of requirements, where the candidates will have to pay more money for AND work under the supervising inspectors for free until the supervising inspector thinks that they are ready.
This is like the old ASHI con game that we had here in Illinois, where one could no be a “full” ASHI member until the new guy had done 250 inspectors that are approved by ASHI.
In other words, get more revenue not by dong actual inspections, but by teaching and having people work for you for free.
It’s all a con game.
I would hope that NACHI would set some basic standards for the inspection even supervising inspectors, now. I would also hope that NACHI would work against this change to the new law.
Thanks for our time.