The COE Revision You Asked For Nick!

jburkeson1 · July 23, 2013, 1:47pm

Hey Nick, when are you going to stop assholes like Nate from insulting real home inspectors in the Members Only Section?

http://www.nachi.org/forum/f2/lazy-inspector-pledge-83319/index9.html#post1067293

mlarson · July 23, 2013, 1:53pm

nthornberry:

Nick, after much consideration I am in total agreement with you on the potential ability of contractors to influence home inspections.

A little background folks so you can ignore some of the noise…the COE revisions were NOT aimed (despite Bushart’s and few others wildest fantasies) at harming the business model of over 2000 InterNACHI inspectors involved in the Alarm Leads Program- from InterNACHI’s perspective they were aimed at something much greater, and that would be keeping inspections ethical and without influence from contractors who stand to profit from an inspector’s findings.

In coming up with my COE proposal, I had to keep a number of things in mind;

Contractors do get work ultimately from many inspection reports, and the inspector is in the position occasionally to consult on the repairs including offering clarity and doing reinspections. Nothing written in the COE should impede on an inspector’s ability to be a catalyst in ensuring that ultimately an issue is handled properly for a client.

Inspectors have a platform for making profits potentially from advertising- and many do. There’s a thin line between marketing broadly and branding a company, and having actionable knowledge or being marketed directly to a particular client experiencing an issue where a contractor might stand to profit. As much as we’d maybe like to ban any sort of income outside of the check a client hands an inspector on site, an association shouldn’t be necessarily restricting trade.

Many inspectors have great relationships with contractors and refer them regularly. They generally make these relationships with the great diagnosing contractors with reasonable rates, not the guys that come in and want to replace everything for any reason. We don’t want to harm the client by restricting an inspector’s ability to make referrals to great contractors.

The entire inspection industry should be cooperative and have a good view of contractors, and vice versa. We have to be careful to have something written that keeps everyone ethical, but doesn’t paint the picture for the public that all or most contractors are “evil”.

With that said Nick, here is a section of COE that I would propose to keep contractors out of the business of influencing inspectors much the way that corrupt judges are influenced to dish out prison sentences to privately held penitentiaries;

Duty to the Client

A. Inspector shall not receive compensation from any contractor for repairs relating to any defect discovered by the inspector on any particular property for a period of one year from the date of inspection.

B. Inspector shall not disclose to any contractor contact details regarding a client or property at which a defect was found.

C. Inspector shall not accept referral fees of any kind for work to be performed where a defect discovered by an inspector is repaired in the course of a job within one year from the date of inspection.

D. Inspector shall not profit from targeted advertisements for a contractor to clients having defects discovered by Inspector. This shall not preclude inspector from profiting for advertisements made by Inspector on behalf of Contractor to a large group or all of Inspector’s clients.

E. No inspector shall allow another entity to vicariously (or on their behalf) participate in any program with repair contractors that would violate parts A thru D of this code.

F. Nothing in this Code shall prohibit an inspector from sharing, discussing, or clarifying issues to a contractor that the client or other participant in a transaction has hired to remedy defects discovered by Inspector.

Feel free to tear it apart! I’m not an expert in these matters by any means, this is simply meant to start a discussion on how to address this very important issue… and let me tell you how important it might become by defining your worst nightmare: The “Free Inspection”.

Imagine an inspector who figures out that he finds say $4000 worth of defects on a typical inspection, and works a deal with contractors in town to get 10-20% of the sales he creates. He markets a “free” inspection when you utilize his contractor network, and now he goes into every inspection looking for the most beneficial way to write up defects for his contractor network.

Meanwhile, the InterNACHI inspector with no such conflicts that charges $400 for a great inspection is sitting at home.

Let’s not let that happen!

Saved

mlarson · July 23, 2013, 1:56pm

What has NACHI come to.

Vendor written COE.

WOW

jbraun · July 24, 2013, 2:41pm

Agree, simply amazing!

jbushart · July 24, 2013, 2:49pm

Why not? NACHI was allowing vendors to provide interpretation on the old one and coordinated revisions to it with representatives of contractors, as well.

Having the vendor write one seems to make just as much sense.

mlarson · July 24, 2013, 2:52pm

Well I see your point.

I guess like John Bowman says we need to trust NACHI;-)

jbushart · July 24, 2013, 3:00pm

I have a membership card for Sam’s Club, where I can access various products and services at discounted prices, too.

If they have a code of ethics, it would certainly apply here, as well. Maybe a better process would be to simply duplicate it instead of reinventing the wheel. If they don’t have one, perhaps we don’t really need one either.

jburkeson1 · July 24, 2013, 3:15pm

Looks like checkmate to me, Thornberry has won this round and the NACHI website too. I see no reason to keep the fight going on here it as it will more than likely end up with people other than Thornberry leaving NACHI.

The fight must be now moved to the legislative process in each & every state which already has licensing provisions in place. In states that have not yet adopted licensing the move should be to inform consumer watchdog groups, the Realtor associations and the general public.

It is truly a shame that NACHI sold out to the vendors, we had the opportunity to halt this contagion in it’s infancy unfortunately when the government gets involved who knows how this will end. Personally I’d simply be happy for the hostilities between home inspectors over Thornberry’s bull**** to cease.

jkeilson · July 24, 2013, 3:21pm

Nick is letting this all get a pathetic and incredibly unprofessional. Vendors and contractors all who collect clients private information and use it for anything they want now being able to help write Professional Home Inspectors Codes of Ethics ?? wow comical in my opinion. NACHI is lowering its standards more and more everyday.

As of late we have:
No working Ethics Committee,

vendors writing the codes of ethics,

Nachi fully endorsing home inspectors to sell their clients private information

NACHI allowing vendors to insult Home Inspectors at free will.

NACHI allowing vendors to threaten Home Inspectors with ridicules, frivolous law suits for having “private” discussions.

Is this for real?
Has this organization given up on all professionalism?
Are Home Inspectors now the feeding source for all these vendors and contractors to get all their leads from?

This is nuts.!!!

Jim

rlewis5 · July 24, 2013, 3:23pm

So! Why don’t you just move on since you don’t like being here?

jkeilson:

Nick is letting this all get a pathetic and incredibly unprofessional. Vendors and contractors all who collect clients private information and use it for anything they want now being able to help write Professional Home Inspectors Codes of Ethics ?? wow comical in my opinion. NACHI is lowering its standards more and more everyday.

As of late we have:
No working Ethics Committee,

vendors writing the codes of ethics,

Nachi fully endorsing home inspectors to sell their clients private information

NACHI allowing vendors to insult Home Inspectors at free will.

NACHI allowing vendors to threaten Home Inspectors with ridicules, frivolous law suits for having “private” discussions.

Is this for real?
Has this organization given up on all professionalism?
Are Home Inspectors now the feeding source for all these vendors and contractors to get all their leads from?

This is nuts.!!!

Jim

jburkeson1 · July 24, 2013, 3:25pm

Who asked you for anything? :roll:

jbraun · July 24, 2013, 3:25pm

jburkeson1:

Looks like checkmate to me, Thornberry has won this round and the NACHI website too. I see no reason to keep the fight going on here it as it will more than likely end up with people other than Thornberry leaving NACHI.

The fight must be now moved to the legislative process in each & every state which already has licensing provisions in place. In states that have not yet adopted licensing the move should be to inform consumer watchdog groups, the Realtor associations and the general public.

It is truly a shame that NACHI sold out to the vendors, we had the opportunity to halt this contagion in it’s infancy unfortunately when the government gets involved who knows how this will end. Personally I’d simply be happy for the hostilities between home inspectors over Thornberry’s bull**** to cease.

Remember what happened to Nicks’ buddy Bowman. I predict the same for Nathan if he keeps on.

jkeilson · July 24, 2013, 3:27pm

Listen newbie. You need to go crawl under a rock.
Some of us care about the profession we have worked hard to create. Take your cynicism and shove it and if you need help I am happy to oblige, shi…t for brains.

Jim

rlewis5 · July 24, 2013, 3:29pm

All you do since you got into the debate is bth and complain like an old woman.

mlarson · July 24, 2013, 3:31pm

And all you have managed to do is keep your nose up a certain vendor’s backside.

jkeilson · July 24, 2013, 3:33pm

jburkeson1:

Looks like checkmate to me, Thornberry has won this round and the NACHI website too. I see no reason to keep the fight going on here it as it will more than likely end up with people other than Thornberry leaving NACHI.

The fight must be now moved to the legislative process in each & every state which already has licensing provisions in place. In states that have not yet adopted licensing the move should be to inform consumer watchdog groups, the Realtor associations and the general public.

It is truly a shame that NACHI sold out to the vendors, we had the opportunity to halt this contagion in it’s infancy unfortunately when the government gets involved who knows how this will end. Personally I’d simply be happy for the hostilities between home inspectors over Thornberry’s bull**** to cease.

I totally agree Joe. I thought a few months ago this would all go away and it was kinda fun toying this this nathan puppet. Unfortunately Nick has taken a liking to him or his checkbooks, who knows what it really is. It is truly puzzling to say the least.

But you are correct it is time for a much larger audience to be informed as to exactly what is happening here now. There are already a few threads on Active Rain, which is a start, but more needs to be done.

Jim

rlewis5 · July 24, 2013, 3:34pm

You and James must have an anal fetish !
Perverts !