Florida Sets Dates for Public Licensing Hearings

[hausdok]

Public meetings will be held in Florida over the next few weeks for stakeholders in the home inspection profession to address Senate Bill 2234 (2007); an act relating to the regulation of building inspection professionals. This bill will become effective July 1, 2010. It provides for licensure and regulation of home inspectors but does not provide for a Board of Home Inspectors and will be administered by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DPBR). Prior to the effective date of the bill, the DPBR is working with stakeholders to establish a regulatory structure for the profession within the state.

The DPBR intends to have all licensing requirements, including certification exams, ready by July 1, 2010, so that they can begin accepting applications for licensure on that date. Under section 468.8324 of the Florida Statutes, persons who perform home inspections and "may qualify to be licensed by the department…if the person meets the licensure requirements of this part by July 1, 2010."

As written, there is no clear distinction in the statute between an applicant wishing to be grandfathered and and applicants who have no prior home inspection experience. In order to develop recommendations to the Florida state legislature to clarify the standards applicable to businesses that have historically provided inspection services, the DPBR is holding meetings to hear from stakeholders. The meetings will be held in Tallahassee on September 29th, Jacksonville, October 1st, Orlando October 13th, and Ft. Lauderdale on October 14th.

At least one organization is already mounting substantial efforts to influence how this bill is implemented. The International Association of Certified Home Inspectors is urging its members to show up in force at these meetings and is coaching its members to use the following talking points:

• Members who have fulfilled all educational requirements for that organization should be grandfathered without further training or examination.
• Members of that organization are in a separate class in comparison to other Florida inspectors and deserve extra consideration in comparison to non-members.
• That organization's online and online video inspector education should be counted toward the 120-hour educational requirement in the bill.
• That organization's online and online video inspector education should be accepted toward Continuing Education requirements.
• A report by the U.S. Department of Education that was recently released proves that online education is better than classroom education.
• In-classroom courses harm consumers for a variety of reasons.
• That organization's online education has been awarded more accreditations and state approvals than the rest of the inspection industry combined.
• That organization's online inspector exam should be an accepted option for the required testing.
• Inspectors caught financially supporting through their membership dues any home inspection association that organization has termed a "diploma mill" should be disqualified from licensure due to lack of good moral character; this includes any inspector association that, in the view of that organization's founder, has no entrance requirements; or any inspection association that uses an exam such as the National Home Inspectors Exam promulgated by the Examining Board of Professional Home Inspectors (EBPHI), to award full or certified membership status. According to that organization's founder, the NHIE is a "beginners exam."

For more information about the times and dates of the DPBR meetings click here.