Washington Inspectors - Were You Grandfathered?

[hausdok]

By Mike O'Handley, Editor- TIJ

Experienced Washington State Inspectors, did you make the deadline to be grandfathered and to receive your new home inspector's license, or beginning tomorrow will you have exactly 10 months left to complete all state licensing requirements or be forced to shut your doors on July 2, 2010 until you've done so?

If you are an experienced home inspector reading this and your first response is, "What the...?" You're not going to be happy with what I have to tell you - you've missed the boat. Here's why:

During the transition period as licensing is phased in there are three categories of inspectors.

Very new inspectors - Those who hadn't actively performed home inspections on or before June 12, 2008.

Newer inspectors - Those that had less than 2 years in the profession and fewer than 100 home inspections completed as of June 12, 2008.

Experienced inspectors - Those with at least 100 home inspections and proof of having been in the business for 2 years before the effective date of the law, June 12, 2008.

To be grandfathered, an experienced inspector had to prove to DOL that he or she had completed more than 100 inspections and been in the business at least two years prior to June 12, 2008. Once the experienced inspector had proven that to DOL, the inspector was allowed to be licensed by merely passing the National Home Inspector exam and a Washington State Home Inspectors' Exam.

If an "experienced" inspector hadn't met all of the grandfathering requirements by today, the inspector essentially lost his or her "experienced" status and is now relegated to the ranks of the "newer" inspectors; as such, the inspector has until July 1, 2010 to complete all requirements that "newer" inspectors and "very new" inspectors must meet.

Something else takes place at midnight though, if you are a "very new" inspector in Washington state, and you haven't yet completed all of the training and experience requirements, you must shut down operations until you've met all licensing requirements. Fail to do that and get caught, and you're subject to a significant civil fine levied by the Department of Licensing.

Is this going to change the face of home inspections in Washington State overnight? No, absolutely not. "Experienced" inspectors and "newer" inspectors are still allowed to practice during the transition period between now and July 1, 2010; they just aren't allowed to advertise or hold themselves out to be "licensed" inspectors until they've completed all of the training requirements, been tested and have received their license. For these two categories, July 1, 2010 is their make or break day - if they haven't completed those requirements by then, they must shut down their operations until their license has been issued.

There is actually one other significant change that takes place at midnight; that's the fact that all inspectors in the state will have to comply with a single standard of practice. That's pretty significant, because up until now inspectors who were members of various competing organizations only inspected to their own association's standard of practice, which the state could not enforce.

Now, even independents - those inspectors that aren't members of any organization and make up about 2/3 of all inspectors in Washington state - are required to follow the new Washington State Home Inspectors' Standard of Practice and comply with all other administrative procedures required by the new law.

Tonight there are inspectors in Washington State that are breathing a sigh of relief that they got everything done in time and now have their license. Tomorrow there will be some who are going to be upset that they'll now have to spend thousands to get trained over the next ten months.

Which one are you?

[Jerry Lozier]

Last check this eve showed several inspectors here in Yaktown still 'approved for exam' and not 'active'

https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/dolprod/bpdLicenseQuery/

guess tomorrow may show it different

Jerry

[hmiller]

Well "back dating" by the State seems to fix the problem of meeting the deadline. It is quite amazing how many licenses became "active" on 8-31-09, through the months of September and October.

[hausdok]

Not Amazing really,

It's my understanding that there were quite a few inspectors who'd completed the testing and paperwork prior to the deadline but failed to send in a check along with their applications, or had made other small administrative errors on the paperwork, that got their app rejected.

The lady running the program can't make exceptions for special circumstances; only the Director can do that. If the Director has decided to take a second look at those rejected applications and has decided to do what she considers fair, using the discretion that she has, it's all perfectly legal and within her authority - not even the board has the power to challenger her on that because it's clearly set in statute.

I don't understand why folks are obsessing on this stuff; anyone she approves still had to meet all of the experience requirements for grandfathering and still had to pass the same tests.

The objective is to get all so-called experienced folks tested to ensure they all are minimally competent and to ensure that anyone new that gets into the profession has had a comprehensive education in the fundamentals, has actually been on-site and inspected homes, has prepared real reports, and has passed the same tests; before they are allowed to go out there the first time on their own to inspect homes for customers.

It ain't perfect by a long shot but it's a lot better than it was and it will get better with time. Once the initial licensing deadline for everyone (July 1, 2010) has passed, the board can begin working to tweak the WACs and improve the way it works.

What the board needs now are logical, well-thought-out suggestions for improvement to the WACs, which is the only thing the board is allowed to tweak, and fewer long-winded rants from those who couldn't have cared less about licensing before the deadline and provided absolutely no helpful input, but are now wailing louder than banshees the night before gran da passed.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Scottpat]

I don't understand why folks are obsessing on this stuff;

They are home inspectors! If you get two in a room you will have a hearty discussion about the time of day.

You have been working as an SME for EBPHI, you have seen first hand how inspectors act when they have an opinion.

[hmiller]

Not Amazing really,

It's my understanding that there were quite a few inspectors who'd completed the testing and paperwork prior to the deadline but failed to send in a check along with their applications, or had made other small administrative errors on the paperwork, that got their app rejected.

The lady running the program can't make exceptions for special circumstances; only the Director can do that. If the Director has decided to take a second look at those rejected applications and has decided to do what she considers fair, using the discretion that she has, it's all perfectly legal and within her authority - not even the board has the power to challenger her on that because it's clearly set in statute.

I don't understand why folks are obsessing on this stuff; anyone she approves still had to meet all of the experience requirements for grandfathering and still had to pass the same tests.

The objective is to get all so-called experienced folks tested to ensure they all are minimally competent and to ensure that anyone new that gets into the profession has had a comprehensive education in the fundamentals, has actually been on-site and inspected homes, has prepared real reports, and has passed the same tests; before they are allowed to go out there the first time on their own to inspect homes for customers.

It ain't perfect by a long shot but it's a lot better than it was and it will get better with time. Once the initial licensing deadline for everyone (July 1, 2010) has passed, the board can begin working to tweak the WACs and improve the way it works.

What the board needs now are logical, well-thought-out suggestions for improvement to the WACs, which is the only thing the board is allowed to tweak, and fewer long-winded rants from those who couldn't have cared less about licensing before the deadline and provided absolutely no helpful input, but are now wailing louder than banshees the night before gran da passed.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

(1) Mike....If I was obsessing, you would know about it from more than an obscure post on a message board. Get real.

(2) It may be quite alright for the State (director) etc. to make exceptions for those who missed the deadline, but why the smoke and mirrors by back dating the effective licensing dates?

Just put the effective date, don't lie about it.

[hausdok]

Well,

I don't know what went on; but I should think that it would be reasonable to make the effective date the date that DOL received and rejected the paperwork without the fee. After all, everything had been completed on that date.

That's just speculation, I don't know if that's actually what happened or not and I'm not losing any sleep over it. Nobody gets a prize based on their effective date, so what does it matter?

OT - OF!!!

M.

[hmiller]

............... so what does it matter?

OT - OF!!!

M.

With that line of thought, I guess I could ask the same of your original post.

[hausdok]

Huh?

You really should go back and read that. That post was meant more to spur on those experienced inspectors who knew about the deadline but dragged their feet, as well as those who hadn't even begun the process yet, rather than the experienced inspectors who knew and had made an effort. If we can light a fire under these folks, maybe we won't have to go through again what we've been going through the past 8 weeks exactly 8 months from today.

Also it was meant to make sure that new inspectors that hadn't yet completed all of the requirements realized that they have to shut down their operation immediately; so they can avoid getting cited by DOL, when another inspector decides to drop a dime on them, and to make everyone understand that, license or not, all inspectors in the state are now obligated by law to comply with the new rules and SOP.

Those things matter a whole lot more than quibbling about what someone's license date was when the director has decided to grant them an exception.

I'm sorry you're unable to see the big picture.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[hmiller]

I don't think that post was going to do anything to spur on grandfathered inspectors, considering it was posted on August 31st. Deadline was Sept 1....

Sorry you think I am quibbling, obsessing or what ever adjective you would like to assign. I will quit posting on your board, if you don't like my presence.