"I know we're working in conjunction with the building inspectors for full licensure of home inspectors," homebuilders' spokesman Ian Smith tells GlobeSt.com. "We've always supported full licensure of home inspectors, because we think they should have a license that qualifies them to pass judgment."
If approved by the end of the law-making session next May, House Bill 33 and Senate Bill 116 would set the foundation for new qualifications and standards on people who represent themselves as board certified home inspectors. Now unregulated in Florida, home inspectors voluntarily subscribe to educational and testing practices primarily through local chapters of the American Society of Home Inspectors.
"This is a hot topic for home inspectors," Joey Caballero, a vice president with the building inspectors association and president of Delray Beach-based Fifth Avenue Building Inspections, tells GlobeSt.com.
To gain more support for regulation, the movement within the building inspectors association began its own lobbying initiative last year to ensure its voice is heard among amid increasing pressure from other groups in the state, such as the builders association, to regulate the home inspection industry.
"Instead of waiting for others to regulate us we've decided to act proactively," Caballero says. "It gives greater recognition to the good work of the good inspectors." On the other hand, home inspectors such as Hank Goldberg, who founded the building inspectors association and served three times as its president, argues such regulatory influences are unnecessary.
"I don't think the legislation will prevail," Goldberg, president of Orlando-based Certified Building Inspectors Inc., tells GlobeSt.com. "In order for a bill to pass, the source of revenue must be ample enough to warrant the program. Number two, we have to demonstrate that by not licensing home inspectors home buyers will be hurt and will be harmed, and that is hard to do."
The bills--sponsored by Rep. Nancy C. Detert, R-Venice, and Sen. Donald C. Sullivan, R-St. Petersburg--were referred to the appropriate state legislative committees earlier this month.
Although presently undergoing a revision, the House bill would require home inspectors to disclose credentials and conflicts of interest to homebuyers, and create prohibitions and civil penalties, a spokesperson for Detert says.
Of all the concerns expressed by proponents of licensing, Caballero says the biggest issue is over individuals who inspect new homes without any formal training in the building trades. The proponents within the building inspectors association now support more stringent regulations in that area.
"The biggest issue is with those people who are doing new construction inspections," Caballero says. "They should have more certification. We've agreed to that. Some were not happy with the discussions on that."
In response, Goldberg suggests such regulations on new home inspectors is simply a way for established inspectors to erect barriers to entry of future inspectors, thus driving up the fees they charge the homebuyer while creating a new source of licensing fees for the state.
"The average home inspector does not think that is a necessary criteria," Goldberg tells GlobeSt.com. "They don't think they have to know building codes because they're not doing code inspections."
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