Ohio Home Inspector license deadline extended

as many as will recommend those that don’t report many electrical safety issues in a house.

I just hope OHIO gets their s*it together. I am licensed in WV and also in OH. There are plenty of unlicensed inspectors inspecting in Ohio, with no consequences. It should be a priority to require a HI license to qualify those of us who are trained and investing $ in our business by paying for our business expenses, licenses, and training. I don’t like losing business to an inspector who isn’t licensed. And, yes an unlicensed inspector in Ohio can get insurance since Ohio never required an inspector to be licensed until now, although not yet enforced.

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Yes, Scott, It is disappointing that Ohio could not get this together per their own deadline. In addition, I don’t think some of the realtors care that the HI is not licensed. I know a few that like to use certain inspectors that give “favorable” reports with little consequences to the HI or agent.
I have to wonder how diligent Ohio will be enforcing the law even after the new date of April 2020.

So you can just start performing Home Inspections on November 1st and the division won’t do anything?

That ain’t going to fly!

They better hurry it up and get their siiittt together.

If I knew that I didn’t need a license I wouldn’t have obtained one.

I realize this post is getting some age on it but I thought I’d add a few comments of information I have found recently.

If you look up your application online it will show active, pending or pending checklist. Pending checklist does not mean you are missing something it means your information has not been verified and input yet. Pending means you information is in and you’re waiting for approval or denial. If your denied it is my understanding they remove your name from the list not put denied next to your name. Approved means you have a license.

Also I’ve seen people discussing various dates and the legality of doing inspections after the November 1st date without a license. The advice I received from the board office was that if you’re doing inspection prior to that date keep doing them while your application is in process. If you weren’t doing them prior to that date then probably best not to start until you receive your license.

Also contrary to what some folks say on here absolutely nothing is cast in stone as far as sop, schooling or the actual requirements for new inspectors that can’t be grandfathered in. To that point people are misconstruing the dates items have to be completed by. Some of the 8 requirements have specific dates they had to be met by, others do not. Read them carefully and decide if the 3 you are trying to meet have dates associated with them.

Lastly be careful who you take advice from on a free forum… Everyone has an agenda sometimes that agenda is to simply relay information to those who need it, while others are out to misinform, generally confuse or self promote.

Have a blessed day everyone!

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Not true! This is still on the Division of Real Estate web page.

https://www.com.ohio.gov/documents/real_HomeInspector.pdf

The Information I posted was clarified to me today. Not yesterday, last week or 8 years ago. I spoke directly to the folks taking, verifying and ultimately approving or denying the applications. Although you point to a date on a letter which I also have in my home because they clarified that that date is irrelevant and can be ignored currently. again always go to the source not some guy on a forum… I get it the paper says a specific date. The board has extended the date frankly for now without a set future date. I wouldn’t take that to mean that fairly soon they might not start enforcing the rules and laws that exist, but for now they are writing exceptions and I don’t care how you state it, how you spin it currently the Ohio home inspectors board is still taking grandfathered applications. Like it or not they have final say in all things home inspector in Ohio. Being honest whether Michael parks or mark funston want it to be different they can scrap the whole thing, continue giving extensions or start applying the laws as written tomorrow. I’m not here to argue a date on a piece of paper or a website for that matter the reality is they are STILL taking grandfather applications. Meet three of the 8 requirements and you’ll most likely be accepted for now.

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That is TRUE. What you need to do read is the law.

I have seen no statutory authority allowing them to do as they damn well please.

The statute states that.

I guess when you are the state the rules don’t apply.

That’s the point mike… they are the state they CAN do what they want as long as they apply it across the board which they are. (Here again you think if they have a buddy who didn’t get his app in on time they aren’t gonna just say, meh, it will be fine submit it anyway your crazy.)They have granted everyone equally the extension. When they end it it will be across the board as well. I’ve read the law. I’ve heard the ongoing saga of this was going to be in place years ago. I also realize the final line in the sand was November 1st… but that simply wasn’t feasible whether through they’re incompetence or just the realization that it was a bigger endeavor than they expected. Even when all is finalized I suspect there will be fine tuning and changes that people are going to have to keep up with. They can’t stop the grandfathering until they come up with a process for new inspectors… which is the main problem they are facing as far as the licensing goes. It’s a double edged sword too… it allows new inspectors to become licensed under a set of criteria designed to be applied to existing inspectors which is unfair to folks who have been doing them for a long time, but it wouldn’t be fair to stop people from becoming new inspectors while this whole fiasco drags on. so they are taking the more lenient route… On some levels they are kind of stuck because they haven’t gotten near the timely responses they anticipated… partly because no one actually believed they’d be ready which they weren’t. 4500 inspectors in the state currently less than a thousand have applied for a license… I’m not sure how that works out logistically. I’m also unsure of how they are addressing the larger firms that allow inspectors that aren’t completely trained to do inspections… I mean partly I want to say sucks to be them, but then I also want to be fair to the younger inspectors that are learning on the job and doing what their employers have been telling them to do. Anyway I posted what I wanted to say. I realize this is a huge undertaking and that things will change. Make sure your insurance is paid up and that you are covering your butt while things are still so undecided.

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No they can’t. The law is the law. Period. This whole thing is FU. The board was not seated as required by law. ASHI almost jammed their SOP down our throats. Say thanks Mike. I want to see you and others licensed. And I want it to mean something.

Right now those who did not follow the rules are treated the same as me, someone who did follow the rules. I call BS.

Here is the official signed Bill. Where do they get the authority to change the rules? They can’t.
Grandfathering at pp52. 4798.03
This is a cluster F.

132-SB-255.pdf (8.3 MB)

Ps we are debating. Not fighting

I didn’t think we were fighting lol I’m adult enough to carry on a discussion. Even if we disagree. We don’t really though. I get it the law was written, they should follow it. They aren’t, it sucks. It’s unfair and it shouldn’t happen. But reality is different than the perfect world of what they should do. We may disagree on the power of the state but that difference isn’t law versus non law it’s a matter of should versus reality. You want them to follow the letter of the law. I’d like them to as well to a certain degree. But I don’t think it’s in everyone’s best interest to make home inspections impossible to obtain. Which following the letter would have done. The inspector and board fiasco put aside, there is still the reason the whole process exists in the first place. that is to provide a service to the public. It would not be in anyone’s best interest to stop the ability to buy or sell homes while people wait months on a couple hundred inspectors. It is a cluster and hindsight I’m sure would tell them to have done it differently. Often laws are written without any practical way to put them in place by legislators who are clueless. That is evident here. It will work out eventually and folks like you will still be doing inspections having held a license a few months longer than probably necessary and others may get theirs a few months earlier than they would have otherwise been able to. Best of luck to you mike!

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As part of the debate. I think these two statements are contradictory.

Just an observation. I’m in MI, so I have no dog in this debate. :smile:

Not sure of your point Larry but only 5 of the 7 members were seated as required by law . The two non-inspector members were seated well after the date required by law

They extended (illegally) the grandfather period 120 days from the 'last seated member. See the bill for the required dates. They knew all along that this would happen.

It will get interesting when the ‘approved’ exceptions are challenged.

I will demand that my licensing requirements be extended (started) when CE courses are approved. And my license renewal date start when licensing is enforced!

Btw the two non-Inspector members were not involved in the Canon of Ethics or the SOP.

Information provided the OHIB was not shared with stackholders as required by law.

Ohio inspectors need to stick together or we will get screwed by those controlling the process. Guess who is well represented?

2 of 7 are still standing, you can volunteer @lkage :smiley:

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I think mike what lkage is saying is contradictory is the statement that the law is the law and they can’t change it… by all perception they have changed it and because they’re the state who’s gonna make them abide by it and really to what end or good. You make a fair point that your license renewal should be extended though… although being able to say you’re licensed should help marketing wise right now. So they may come back to you with that.

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Thank you, Mark. That is what I meant to imply.

[quote=“lkage, post:33, topic:157000”]
I’m in MI, so I have no dog in this debate. :smile:
[/quote].

:grin: :nerd_face: :cowboy_hat_face:

The law wasn’t changed. Choosing not to enforce the law is different.

Okay, Michael, whatever you think.