I’ve done a bit of reasearch on the topic and wrote back to the agent as follows, i’m just wondering if I should have cc’d the inspector that gave the agent the “misinformation”.
"Thanks for your response Janet & Klaus, to be honest I believe Mr. #### may have misunderstood the information he was given. I’ll try and give you a clear answer below.
The Ontario Occupational Health & Safety Act enforced by the Ministry of
Labour is only applicable to an “employee” in the service of a “business”
that has hired that individual to work for them.
The Act does NOT apply to work performed by a contractor that was hired by another individual on a private basis. For example if you hired a roofer to
re-do your roof on your home the Act does not apply to you and you would not be charged by the Ministry of Labour if something were to happen. The same can be said about home inspectors, in most cases a residential Home
Inspector is hired by the home buyer to perform a home inspection on a
private basis. Therefore, for Mr. #### to state that the real estate agent
can be charged by the MOL is not accurate, the real estate agent is not even the hiring party.
Now, it is a little different if a home inspector were to inspect a new home
for a client before they take possession. If a home inspector is to perform
an inspection on a construction site than they would be required to have
fall protection by law as of 2002 or the home builder can deny them access
as they are technically the owner of the property and they can be charged if something were to happen on their site. In this case the CSA of Ontario
would be a training provider for fall protection and confined spaces.
For more info and to verify what i’ve stated please visit the Ministry of
Labours website: http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/
This specific link to the MOL is what I believe Mr. #### may have
misunderstood: http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/news/2006/06-86.html
This new regulation only applies to specific sectors and would only apply to
a Home Inspector providing their service on a contruction site where the
home buyer has yet to take possession of their new home.
In any event Inside Out Home Inspections will have fall protection
certification by Oct 4, 2006 as we do feel that safety is very important.
Again I would like to state that fall certification and confined space
training should not be the sole determining factor in hiring a Home
Inspector. One should also make sure an inspector is an active member of a governing body such as OAHI or NACHI, without membership in these types of organization it is very difficult for an inspector to obtain E/O and General
Liability insurance.
I hope this clears things up for you, if there is anything else we can
clarify please let me know. You can reach me personally on my cell phone at 905-###-#### if you like to discuss this further."