The final report from the combined panel of Inspectors, Lawyers, Realtors and Consumer advocates will be posted on the Regulatory Register today.
A Communication bulletin will be sent out later to inform everyone who registered with the MCS.
Check for it’s posting here
This goes directly to the source
http://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/view.do?postingId=14645&language=en
** A Closer Look: Report on Home Inspector Qualifications in Ontario **
Ministry: Ministry of Consumer Services Regulation Number(s): n/a
Bill or Act: n/a Summary of Proposal: Summary of Proposal:
The ministry is seeking input on a proposal for legislation that would establish mandatory qualifications for home inspectors.
Currently anyone in Ontario can call themselves a home inspector. Many consumers depend on the opinions of their home inspector to make what is often the largest purchase decision of their lifetime.
In order to improve consumer protection in this important part of the home buying process, the Ministry of Consumer Services is consulting on a panel’s findings and recommendations to introduce mandatory qualifications for home inspectors.
The panel was established by the Ministry of Consumer Services and met for four months to discuss issues, consider options, and make recommendations on qualifications of home inspectors.
The panel has made thirty-five recommendations in five areas:
The Ministry of Consumer Services is now collecting public comments on the panel’s recommendations. The panel’s report with the recommendations is attached here and the ministry welcomes feedback and encourages anyone interested to provide comments.
The panel’s report and any public feedback the ministry receives will guide the government as it considers whether to bring forward legislation to establish qualifications for home inspectors.
Further Information: [http://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/images/icons/icon_pdf.gif
A Closer Look - Qualifying Ontario’s Home Inspectors](http://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/showAttachment.do?postingId=14645&attachmentId=22811) (Download Adobe Reader)
[http://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/images/icons/icon_doc.gif
Public Consultation Feedback Form](http://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/showAttachment.do?postingId=14645&attachmentId=22812)
Proposal Number: 13-MCS013 Posting Date: December 13, 2013 Comments Due Date: ** January 27, 2014 ** Contact Address: Ministry of Consumer Services
Policy Branch
777 Bay Street, 5th Floor
Toronto, ON M7A 2J3
Attention: Ben Valido, Project Manager
Thanks Kevin, I am still awaiting announcement and therefore was still bound by the confidentiality agreement panel members had.
Now it’s in the open I guess we can discuss what the ramifications are. We still cannot say who said what at the meeting as those areas are still covered by the Chatham House Rule.
Pretty Much.
Agreed Guys! I also use someone who is not an Inspector anymore for such documentation. And another who is not InterNachi for other sensitive files that can be posted with permission.
The document is well done and despite what I said about SEG they have lived up to the responsibility to accurately set out a very good document.
Ontario Government Wraps Up Fall Session
December 12, 2013 6:00 p.m. Office of the Premier
The fall session of the Ontario parliament has wrapped up with the province moving forward in a number of areas to protect consumers, promote local food, and strengthen Ontario’s diversity.
The report was very well done and I agree with most of what was discussed.
My only worry is about this area:
The panel found that different approaches to regulation are used in other Canadian jurisdictions such as British Columbia and Alberta, and in the United States. The panel also looked at the Ontario model of a delegated administrative authority. This is an approach to regulation in which the government gives a not-for-profit authority the responsibility to administer a law that regulates a profession or business sector.
The panel concluded that a delegated administrative authority approach using a full range of regulatory functions would work best for Ontario. This approach would ensure the greatest amount of uniformity and consistency for home inspections and for appropriate consumer protection.
I hope this is a new Authority and not an association. It would kill me to see Caphi get there talons into it.
I know I am not from Ontario but thought I would throw in my two cents anyways.
Good luck guys.:)
The official announcement was made by the Ministry of Consumer services with a request that the panel members circulate it to their respective contingents. (10:25 this morning)
It is as follows:
On December 11, 2013, the home inspector panel submitted their final report titled, “A Closer Look: Qualifying Ontario’s Home Inspectors” to the Minister of Consumer Services.
This report represents the consensus of a 16-member volunteer panel of home inspectors, consumers and representatives from real estate, law, education and insurance across Ontario.
The consensus-building process included eight panel meetings over four months; each meeting was facilitated by SEG Management Consultants. The panel meetings followed a process of focusing on a key theme related to home inspector qualifications and reviewing and confirming consensus points. The key themes assessed were:
*consumer protection and professional needs for regulating home inspectors
*technical knowledge needs and a review of the various standards of practice in Ontario
*professional entry to practice requirements and competency needs
*consumer protection and education needs
*governance and oversight needs for the home inspector profession
The final report makes 35 recommendations, including: regulating the home inspector profession, introducing uniform qualifications, standards of practice and code of ethics to be followed by all home inspectors. All recommendations are focused on increasing the integrity of Ontario’s home inspector profession and strengthening consumer protection for home buyers who purchase home inspection services.
I would like to thank the panel for their commitment to the process and providing this public service. I would also like to thank SEG Management Consultants for their professionalism and support to the panel.
The panel’s report is now posted on Ontario’s Regulatory Registry for public review and feedback. Here is the direct link to the posting and report: http://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/view.do?postingId=14645&language=en
The ministry will be collecting public feedback on the panel’s report until January 27, 2014.
David Brezer, Director
Consumer Policy & Liaison Branch, Ministry of Consumer Services
Thanks Leonard
Please all Ontario Homies .
Now is you chance you need to send in your ideas to show this group what your thoughts are .
It is your future and only you can help to set your future .
There are a few things in it that might need to get changed but overall a very good representation was made.
This will be passed on to Nick at InterNachi.
Roy, For those who think that the fall of a Liberal government will change anything, I give the following words of Caution.
From the Ministry of Consumer Services, when broached of this subject the following response was given, and I quote:
“Unlike a private members bill that automatically dies at the end of each parliament if it hasn’t been read, the process to regulate Home Inspectors is driven by the Government. This process will endure any change in elected party.”
This was spoken by a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Consumer services who understands the distinction between “Government” and “Parliament”.
You are right in feeling that February is the next piece of the process, but following public consultation of the proposals the process does not go straight to Parliament. It goes first back into “Government” where there are policy reviews. This continues right through any electoral change. These policy reviews then form the basis of the “Bill” which is presented, by the “Government” to the “Parliament” for the reading.
The “Parliament” then goes through 3 readings of the Bill, interspersed with Committee reviews as required and public input where felt necessary. It is in these intermediate stages where advocacy can interfere.
As for “Nothing” happening until February, this is misleading. It is important for those that want to have their say have it BEFORE January 27th. After that the matter is out of their hands until the Committee and Public input stage, and that is only if you are “invited” to respond.
If you have a better solution than that published, then now is the time to put your thoughts forward. Wait until February, and you’ve lost your chance.
And remember, the reason the statistics came out that OAHI had more members in Ontario than InterNACHI is because many of the InterNACHI Inspectors couldn’t even be bothered to fill in the survey sent out by the Consultants.
Apathy never wins votes!
That could be because many did not trust the Consulting firm at the time. I had my reserves too!
Roy this is an advisement to the Minister of consumer services, whomever it may be. The rise or fall of any particular govenerment is of no consequence. You can bet any new Minister will approve. It is designed to put money, ie fees into government coffers and to put money into the hands of insurance companies and of course the colleges/course providers. No matter that prices must rise for consumers to cover all the added costs, insurance, etc, with no additional profit for the identified 80 plus percent of small business owners who are home inspectors.
This sounds like PHPIC to me … http://www.phpic.ca/home.php
**Occupational standards can be used for a variety of purposes, including: acting as the basis for training; curriculum development; accreditation of training programs; recruitment; performance improvement; career development; and the certification of practitioners. **
The panel agreed that this National Occupational Standard should be used as the basis to identify professional competencies for home inspectors. A lot of effort and money has been invested in the development of the National Occupational Standard for Professional Home and Property Inspectors and it provides a good description of the competencies required. The panel felt that it made sense to build on this previous work and to use it as the basis for developing common competencies. The panel suggests that the current version of the National Occupational Standard should be used as the basis for developing home inspector competencies.
As the national standard is updated periodically, competency requirements for home inspectors should be revised as well.
I already have made this aware to Nick and Ben at this time Roy! Thanks for picking the exact info needed and posting it.
Interesting how they use information from a self appointed secret group who can not even get along with their own members .
Spoke to the consumer affairs critic this week on a conference call and the conservatives have not intent on licencing home inspectors.
So I came across an interesting item. Real Estate Offices can charge an HI for being on a referral list as long as its disclosed. Apparently it is not unethical to do so, see page xii. If there are 50 offices that HIs now service this fee could add up. How does this protect the Consumer?
It would make tracking what comments are related to what posts if people quoted the post number they are responding to. We might able to mange to prevent some of the flame wars too.
Just a thought. I never quoted a post in this comment, because it’s a general comment. Already on this thread I have difficulty following.
Roy. The comment about the NOS never came from any one member of the panel. (Your post #14) It certainly wasn’t from PHPIC. It seemed sensible to all to use the NOS that had been developed by an all party group. We decided to start with the one from 2008 because it at least carried the weight from multiple parties. The one ion 2013 was discounted because it was CAHPI/OAHI self-serving and not inclusive of any other Group.
There is a current re-development of the NOS and DACUM driving by the NHICC but this time open to all parties to comment. It is NOT focused on College only education.
Kevin, Your post #15. Haven’t got a clue what you are talking about. As for you informing Nick and Ben, TJ has already gone there, and we (OntarioACHI) are talking to Nick, Ben and Chris around education specific to Ontario, keeping it free for members and ensuring Exams comply with the the proposals made to the MCS. Nick has already offered to set-up a proctored exam session in Toronto early next year. We are working out the logistics.
We will inform everyone on both the InterNACHI and OntarioACHI communication systems as details fall out.
My connections with Nick and Ben have been ongoing through the process. There are some things that will need to change but I do not have the power to do so. That part meaning the exam I have no doubt will be done right however the referral work and insurance is what will need work.
As for Real Estate referral this should not happen.
A list of Inspector’s that are Ontario licensed Inspectors should be populated and randomly shuffled everyday.
As for price adjustments it will prove to be very interesting and does not help out Home Inspectors in any way unless there is some way to compensate the Inspector and purchasers.
Each Association can have a list of Licensed Home Inspectors to do the same.
