A quick question for Nick Gromicko and Internachi on membership requirements for performing any/all inspections as a licensed member of internachi in the great State of Florida.
Question: Specifically, what is Internachi’s stance on their Standards of Practice and their applicability to insurance inspections by their licensed membership in the state of Florida?
Nick well not answer your question. At least not directly.
wsiegel writes:
I don’t follow the message board, so if you need me to come to a message board thread, email the URL of the thread to fastreply@nachi.org
Robert Sheppard asks:
You used the word “their” three times in your question. I would need to know who “they” is in your first and second use of the word “their.” I’m assuming your last use of the word “their” refers to InterNACHI. It’s probably best to exchange those three uses with a clearer term such as “InterNACHI’s” or “FL DBPR’s” or “InterNACHI’s Residential Standards of Practice” or whatever so that I can give you an accurate answer.
I’ll take a wild guess and reformulate your question so that I can answer it immediately. “Specifically, what is InterNACHI’s stance on InterNACHI’s Standards of Practice for Performing a General Home Inspection and its applicability to insurance inspections (performed) by InterNACHI’s licensed membership in the state of Florida?” If that is an accurate reformulation of your question, here is my answer:
InterNACHI’s Residential Standards of Practice for Performing a General Home Inspection does not apply to insurance inspections in the state of Florida.
Hope that helps.
#1. You are always on this board do that is an invalid statement. You might not be on every minute but you are here a great deal of the time.
#2. INACHI standards fall below the Fl standards, so naturally you would make the statement you made. So let’s play your game. Should a home inspector in Fl follow the Fl standards of practice when completing a 4 point insurance inspection. What is Inachi’s position on this?. As the largest association membership wise in the US, I sure you have an opinion on this
Heck, even this Minnesota Inspector could have answered that question…** Florida SOP supersedes all other SOP’s**, including InterNACHI.
Then why do over 80% of the reports that I read say that they follow the Inachi standards of practice?
I don’t believe that any state-mandated Standard of Practice for Performing Residential Home Inspections would apply to ancillary or insurance inspections, but you’d have to ask the author. I can only tell you that InterNACHI’s Standard of Practice for Performing Residential Home Inspections doesn’t apply to ancillary or insurance inspections.
468.832 Disciplinary proceedings.—
(1) The following acts constitute grounds for which the disciplinary actions in subsection (2) may be taken:
(a) Violation of any provision of this part or s. 455.227(1).
(e) Making or filing a report or record that the licensee knows to be false, willfully failing to file a report or record required by state or federal law, willfully impeding or obstructing such filing, or inducing another person to impede or obstruct such filing. Such reports or records shall include only those that are signed in the capacity of a licensed home inspector.
(g) Engaging in fraud or deceit, or negligence, incompetency, or misconduct, in the practice of home inspection services.
(h) Failing to perform any statutory or legal obligation placed upon a licensed home inspector; violating any provision of this chapter, a rule of the department, or a lawful order of the department previously entered in a disciplinary hearing; or failing to comply with a lawfully issued subpoena of the department.
(j) Failing to meet any standard of practice adopted by rule of the department.
I think your post supports my contention.
I don’t need an association interfering with my business practices… All insurance inspections are driven by the form, no? :roll:
Personally I don’t answer questions which aren’t asked.
All insurance inspections are driven by your licensure, which states that all home inspection services shall follow the statutes. By signing your name to that form you are, as the statue states, performing a home inspection service, therefore you standards of practice apply. Mark Cramer stated that in an earlier thread after a meeting ASHI had with Citizens.
All associations need to support the licensing laws of each state.
Oh, and if you don’t need an association interfering with your business practice, why do you belong to one?
Why do you care and what business is it of yours? Have a problem? Take it to the state licensing agency.
The Florida SOP does not require inspection of any or component if agree upon in writing by the inspector and the client.
Therefor if you agree only to inspect certain items, that is fine. You actually could inspect a system and agree not to inspect any component of that system.
Most insurance inspections do not fit into some the rules listed above either.
Now if we consider the definition of Home Inspection Services
If I am hired to look at some’s roof, it is not a home inspection.
The insurance industry allows home inspectors to fill-out the forms, not because it is a Home Inspection Service but because of their experience and education. You do not need a HI license to fill-out many of the forms, other licenses are acceptable and they even accept “other” approved people.
The DBPR even answered the questions in a Declaratory Statement:
Just curious, to what standard of practice with respect to Inspection s does a venerable Florida licensed contractor adhere to when conducting insurance inspections,. Or any inspections for that matter? Just trying to learn here and gain a better understanding from those with much more knowledge on this topic.
This applies to all States that govern Home Inspectors:
(As mentioned above) as an HI license holder, you are required to abide by the SOP of the state for which you operate in,
As an InterNachi member, you are required to abide by the SOP of the state for which you operate in, AND, for those standards not in conflict with your states SOP, you are required to abide by InterNachi SOP.
The InterNachi SOP goes above and beyond most state SOP’s. They work in concert together, not independent of, each other.
Hope that helped.
John correctly notes:
And I don’t see how a Standard of Practice for performing home inspections would apply to an insurance inspection or hair styling. The Code of Ethics might, but not the SOP. You don’t follow a home inspection SOP (which is very specific) when doing a wind mitigation inspection or dying a woman’s hair purple. All three are done differently.
Harry and Lloyd, at it again…….
Declaratory requests and responses are specific to the petitioner’s particular set of circumstances only (FSS 120.565). As such, they (Department) cannot give or imply broad interpretations across a wide area that would affect more than just the petitioner’s circumstances. Good luck using that statement to defend yourself. Had either of you been paying attention, you would have noticed this specific question has been asked twice before, both times rejected for comment by the DBPR.
The DBPR Home Inspector Licensing Division has released 5 total DS’s, all 5 are wrong. One of them stated that a Home Inspector could take kickbacks from an insurance agent. As for insurance inspections being part of “home inspection services? I’ll let the DBPR answer that one themselves…….
The DBPR, Home Inspector Licensing Division, has over 31 approved courses for insurance inspections which include the OIR-B1 1802 Wind Mitigation Inspection, Roof Certifications, and 4-Point inspections. These courses were approved under the guidelines of 61-30.503(2). A mandatory part of the approval (mandatory means not optional) is that they must relate to the practice of “home inspection services as defined in section 468.8311(4), F.S.:
61-30.503 Course Approval, Prelicensure and Continuing Education.
(1) Prelicensure and continuing education courses shall be valid for purposes of the licensure and continuing education requirement only if such courses have received approval from the Home Inspection Unit before the course is offered.
(2) The department shall approve education courses for two years from the date approved when the following requirements are met:
(b) The course provider shall submit to the department the following for course approval before the course is offered: an application, a detailed course outline describing the course’s content and subject matter, and a written statement that explains in detail how the course relates to the practice of home inspection services as defined in Section 468.8311(4), F.S.
How many approved insurance inspections courses does inachi have Nick? Did you provide the written statement showing how they relate to the practices of Home inspection Services as defined under 468.8311(4)? after all, it is required.
Also, just to clarify, the definition of “home inspection services” doesn’t contain all of the requirements listed under 61-30 Standards of Practice. The definition is missing 61-30.101 General. Guess I don’t have to follow that one as I’m only providing “home inspection services” as defined under 468.8311(4). “Home” is simply defined as residential and “home inspection report” is just a written record singed in the capacity of a licensed Home Inspector. Also, “home inspection services” simply defines the method of the inspection, the systems and components that the inspector is trained and qualified to inspect, and the manner in which they shall report.
The petitioner John tried to use stated specifically that their inspectors did not hold themselves out for hire to the public, and did not present themselves as “home inspectors” or any other variation of that label implying licensure under the Division. It was as simple as that!
Very confusing statement John, did you even read the definitions of the terms you are using?
First you state that the SoP’s can be divided individually by systems and components if agreed to by yourself and the client prior to performing the “home inspection”. Then you imply that by inspecting an individual system or component, such as the roof covering, that it would no longer be a “home inspection”. (I will assume that by home inspection you really mean “home inspection report” being as “home inspection” is not defined under our licensure)
Well, which is it?
The definition of “home inspection report” only requires that the licensed inspector provide a “written report”. Do you provide written reports John? Do you sign them as a licensed Home Inspector under 468.83 John? Upon producing a “written report”, the Home inspector shall, per the definition of “shall” (meaning required without exclusion), report according to the provisions of 468.8323(1) A through C per the written rules of FAC 61-30.101 through 61-30.811.
To report, per FAC 61-30.101(23), simply means “to communicate in writing”. You can communicate, right John?
In reference to the definition of “Home Inspection Services”. This simply states the methodology of the inspection via limited visually inspection (when accessible or readily accessible/operable), the systems and components the inspector is trained and qualified to inspect, with the end result being a “written report”.
Let’s try another way……we’ll call it “home inspections for dummies”.
You posted a paragraph from a previous DS produced by the DBPR. What was the context of that statement John? That in order for something to qualify as “home inspection services” it would need to meet the definition of the systems and components that a licensed home inspector is trained and qualified to inspect listed under 468.8311(4), no?
Do 4-Point inspections, Roof Certifications, or the OIR-B1 1802 contain the following terms:
Guess what?
Hey John, didn’t you say at one point that you sign all of your wind mitigations with you CRC license? Might want to look this one over:
553.841 Building code compliance and mitigation program.—
(1) The Legislature finds that knowledge and understanding by persons licensed or employed in the design and construction industries of the importance and need for complying with the Florida Building Code and related laws is vital to the public health, safety, and welfare of this state, especially for protecting consumers and mitigating damage caused by hurricanes to residents and visitors to the state. The Legislature further finds that the Florida Building Code can be effective only if all participants in the design and construction industries maintain a thorough knowledge of the code, code compliance and enforcement, duties related to consumers, and changes that improve construction standards, project completion, and compliance of design and construction to protect against consumer harm, storm damage, and other damage. Consequently, the Legislature finds that there is a need for a program to provide ongoing education and outreach activities concerning compliance with the Florida Building Code, the Florida Fire Prevention Code, construction plan and permitting requirements, construction liens, and hurricane mitigation.
…it always seemed odd to me that 468.832(1)e made no mention of “Home Inspection Services” but instead specifically states “signed in the capacity of a licensed home inspector”.
Weird.