Just thought all the PA guys should read this. This is the new revision of good old Senate Bill 359. Read it carefully!!! There is a lot of things in there that can put people out of business. There are also things in there about them trying to regulate ancillary services even though they are seperate state licenses.
Here is a guide to reading Bills if you never read them before:
center scored sections are intended to be deleted
plain text is inteneded to be kept as is
underscored text is proposed additions
My opinion still stands. This Bill SUCKS the way it is written!!!
APPLICANT MUST FULFILL ALL OF THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS: 2 (1) BE OF GOOD MORAL CHARACTER. 3 (2) BE 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER. 4 (3) :mad:EXCEPT AS PROVIDED UNDER SUBSECTION (A.1), HAVE 5 SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED THE PENNSYLVANIA PEST MANAGEMENT 6 ASSOCIATION ACCREDITED WOOD DESTROYING INSECT INSPECTORS 7 TRAINING COURSE.:mad:
So…they want you to take a third part course that has no government affiliation as a licensure requirement even if you don’t do WDI inspections? 8 (4) HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED AN EXAMINATION APPROVED 9 AND ADMINISTERED BY A THIRD-PARTY TESTING ORGANIZATION. 10 (5) PAY THE FEE SET BY THE BOARD. 11 (A.1) CATEGORY 12 CERTIFICATION.-- 12 (1) IF A HOME INSPECTOR OR PEST INSPECTOR CHOOSES TO 13 OFFER WOOD DESTROYING INSECT INSPECTION SERVICES FOR REAL 14 ESTATE TRANSACTIONS IN THIS COMMONWEALTH, THE INSPECTOR SHALL 15 BE A LICENSED PEST CONTROL OPERATOR WITH CATEGORY 12 16 CERTIFICATION OR SHALL BE A DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 17 LICENSED INSPECTOR WITH CATEGORY 12 NA CERTIFICATION AND 18 SHALL HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED THE PENNSYLVANIA PEST 19 MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION ACCREDITED WOOD DESTROYING INSECT 20 INSPECTORS TRAINING COURSE, OR ITS EQUIVALENT, AND SHALL BE 21 CURRENTLY ACCREDITED.
There is no such thing as a NA certification with the Department of Agriculture.
HUD/FHA/VA and Pennsylvania Association of Realtors will only recognize an NPMA 33
form signed by a licensed pesticide applicator with a valid business license
22 (2) IN THE EVENT THAT AN ANCILLARY SERVICE IS PERFORMED 23 BY A LICENSED HOME INSPECTOR, THE INSPECTOR SHALL, IN 24 ADDITION TO THE REQUIREMENTS UNDER PARAGRAPH (1), BE LICENSED 25 OR CERTIFIED TO PERFORM THAT SERVICE AS REQUIRED BY STATE 26 REGULATION. INSPECTORS FOUND TO BE PERFORMING ANCILLARY 27 INSPECTIONS FOR THE HOME-BUYING PUBLIC WITHOUT THE REQUIRED 28 LICENSE OR CERTIFICATION SHALL BE SUBJECT TO DISCIPLINE BY 29 THE BOARD.
cduphily
(Chris Duphily, Level II Infrared Thermographer #8355)
5
Why are they writing a licensure bill prior to setting a committee based on fair representation of all Inspection organizations.
Was NACHI consulted on the requirements for licensure? If not who was?
“HAVE COMPLETED NO LESS THAN 100 FEE-PAID INSPECTIONS
5 PER YEAR OVER THE FIVE YEARS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING.”
So any inspector with 4 or less years experience has to take another entrance course and pass another test and shell out the cash for this course/test. Then pay for a license.
I can’t find it right now but there is also a 40 hour provision of “supervised in field training” … I’m sure fee’s will be imposed for this “training” and who provides the training? Possibly PHIC who is currently having financial troubles … how convenient.
Chris Duphily (not a lawyer) (* disclaimer borrowed from Tom Deitrich also not a lawyer)
So…if you were in business for 4 years…this is going to mean sitting your butt back in some vocational school for 120 hours at probably no less than $4,000 to listen to someone teach you stuff you have seen a million times and have written up. Why work the PHIC RAMP program at $100 a ride-a-long…just open a Pennsylvania Home Inspector School. You can make a lot more and have to do a lot less. Hell…you will probably have 10-15 experienced home inspectors sitting in the class at $4,000.00 a piece.
SECTION 2.1. FOR ONE YEAR FROM THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS
26 SECTION, AN APPLICANT WHO MEETS ALL OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF
27 FORMER 68 PA.C.S. CH. 75 AND THIS SECTION MAY BE LICENSED AS A
28 HOME INSPECTOR WITHOUT HAVING TO COMPLETE A BOARD-APPROVED
29 TRAINING PROGRAM OR COURSE OF STUDY INVOLVING THE PERFORMANCE OF
30 HOME INSPECTIONS. THE APPLICANT MUST:
20070S0359B1816 - 60 -
1 (1) BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE.
2 (2) HAVE PASSED A WRITTEN EXAMINATION TO TEST COMPETENCE
3 IN HOME INSPECTION PRACTICE.
4 (3) HAVE COMPLETED NO LESS THAN 100 FEE-PAID INSPECTIONS
5 PER YEAR OVER THE FIVE YEARS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING.
6 (4) SHOW PROOF OF PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY INSURANCE
7 CONSISTENT WITH 68 PA.C.S. § 75A09.
** What about the inspectors that have set up their business, paid thousands of dollars already, and make their living doing inspections? You can’t take away someone’s livelyhood just like that or expect them to shell out a rediculous amount of money to become complaint.**
** Licensure should not be about the quantity of inspections you have done. It needs to focus on the QUALITY of inspections that are done.
There are plenty of hack inspectors out there that give a couple page report and leave out a million and one defects, but they get the quantity of inspections because they undercut, write soft reports, and spend less than an hour on site. How is that supposed to be a better inspector than someone who spends the time, documents everything, and follows up on their work?**
cduphily
(Chris Duphily, Level II Infrared Thermographer #8355)
12
Illegally interfering with free marketplace participation. Regulated by the Federal Trade Commission.
Contracts or combinations that tend, or are designed, to eliminate or stifle competition, create aMonopoly, artificially maintain prices, or otherwise hamper or obstruct the course of trade as it would be carried on if it were left to the control of natural economic forces.
As used in the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (15 U.S.C.A. § 1 et seq.), unreasonable restraints of trade are illegal per se and interfere with free competition in business and commercial transactions. Such restraint tends to restrict production, affect prices, or otherwise control the market to the detriment of purchasers or consumers of goods and services. A restraint of trade that is ordinarily reasonable can be rendered unreasonable if it is accompanied by a Specific Intent to achieve the equivalent of a forbidden restraint. Link
What is this referring to?? PA Dept. Of Agriculture DOES NOT offer an ‘inspector’ license. The Dept of Agriculture DOES offer an ‘Applicator’ license, but this refers to those who apply pesticides. As a home inspector I have no desire to apply pesticide, nor do I have any desire to carry the necessary insurance (comprehensive general liability $200,000 coverage) for an activity I don’t participate in.
So, If you’ve been in business 5 years and have 600 inspections under your belt , BUT (Because of things naturally being slow when you start a business) only performed 70-75 inspections your 1st year, you’re going to tell me you don’t get a license??
So, If a current inspector doesn’t meet the requirements on page 60, (Line 25) do they then become an ‘Intern’ ??
And if required to become an ‘intern’, why is there no mechanism in this bill to honor some combination of experience and CE credits that many inspectors in this predicament certainly have ??
The scary thing is this, it seems biased towards certain organizations, as an example PPMA (look at education requirements and PPMA’s education price structure). I have to say, it those in charge say I certain organizations have ‘inside tracks’ for allowing their members to perform HI’s, I have to make a business decision and might have to abandon current organizations, and join those.
Sorry for run on sentences.
Anyone hearing a fat-lady signing here, or am I untrusting in our elected officials actually researching this bill?
What would this mean for someone like me just starting out? Am I supposed to pay someone else to be their intern? Then retake the course that I have already taken, and pass another exam given by a third party? I feel bad for the guys that have already been in this game for a bit, but this will definately deter new people from jumping through the hoops.