New Hampshire the Latest State to Regulate Home Inspectors

New Hampshire joins Washington and Kansas as the latest states to regulate inspectors, bringing the total to 35. That’s 70 percent of the 50 states. In the last 11 years alone, 31 states have passed legislation that affects either the inspector or the inspection. Those numbers could be put in the dictionary next to the word “trend.” It doesn’t get any clearer than that.

ASHI members worked with legislators, other inspector groups and stakeholders to guarantee the New Hampshire licensing law would have a positive impact on the profession and homebuyers. They generally are pleased with the results.

According to the new law, beginning January 1, 2010, applicants seeking home inspection licensure would be required to meet the following minimum requirements:

• Completion of at least 80 hours of board-approved education
• Proof of passing a board-approved examination that is proctored by an independent and nationally
• recognized institution
• Completion of high school or its equivalent
• Be at least 18 years of age
• Submit to the board a notarized criminal history records release form
• Proof of holding general liability insurance

Residents of the state who have been actively engaged in home inspections for at least 12 months preceding the effective date of the law should be eligible for licensure without completing the requirements set out above, but they must provide proof of knowledge and equivalent experience to the board, pay an initial fee and fulfill all other license application requirements.

Licensed inspectors will have to complete 20 hours of continuing education every two years to keep their licenses.

New York ASHI Members Use Legislative Action Center to Fight Well Water Testing Bill

New York state ASHI members recently used the ASHI Legislative Action Center to fight a last-minute bill that would drastically affect rural inspectors. Here’s a summary Gregg Harwood provided to the ASHI Legislative Committee:

“In my state this year, we have been monitoring a couple of well-water testing bills, and we’ve written a memo in opposition to one of them. Our objections to these bills usually are that they state the testing must be done by a state-certified lab and do not make it clear that the sampling and delivery to the lab may be done by home inspectors. We do not want to get into the same situation that New Jersey is in where, as I understand it, legislation was enacted a couple of years ago that locked inspectors out of this service, resulting in increased fees for homeowners and loss of revenue for inspectors.
“Unfortunately, during the last week of the legislative session, a bill called the Well Water Education Act was introduced and then passed by both houses within days. The lobbyist for my state-wide organization, the New York State Association of Home Inspectors (NYSAHI), caught the bill in his weekly monitoring, but it was a done deal, and we did not have time to influence it.

“The main provision in the bill is a requirement for the Department of Health to develop a booklet of information on the need to test private wells, what to test for, etc., and a requirement for home inspectors to provide this information to all their clients served by a private well. Our main objection to the bill is the text that states: ‘The water test should be conducted by a state-certified laboratory.’ We are afraid that this text will be widely interpreted to include the sampling and, therefore, cause the loss of business described above. We also are really upset that this bill, which imposes new requirements on us, was done without any input from our licensed profession.

“The bill is now on the Governor’s desk, and we are asking for a veto, which brings me to the main point of this e-mail.

“Our lobbyist suggested we contact the governor to ask for a veto. We have contacted inspectors throughout the state by several different means, but the most effective one by far appears to be the ASHI Legislative Action Center. I put together some text over the weekend, and Bob Kociolek put it up on the center on Monday and got the e-mails sent to all New York ASHI inspectors. In the last three days, almost 50 inspectors have responded to this initiative and have sent a message to the governor using the system.

“This system is a great member benefit, and we should continue to promote that fact. And as you all know, ASHI staff is a great asset, too.”

To see the message New York ASHI members were able to personalize and send to the governor, go to http://capwiz.com/ashi/issues and click on Legislative Alerts and Updates. You will only be able to send your own version if you have a New York state zip code.

If you need to rouse your state members to conduct grass-roots lobbying with a legislative branch, committee or the governor, contact Bob Kociolek at
847-954-3177 or bobk@ashi.org. No one provides more legislative tools for home inspectors than ASHI. That’s your dues dollars at work.