Thread: Bill targets home inspectors - TheNewsTribune.com

InspectionNews has just found the following information that might be of interest to you:


Bill targets home inspectors
TheNewsTribune.com, WA - 6 hours ago
Harriet Spanel, D-Bellingham, to standardize the home-inspection industry, which already is regulated in more than 30 states. Spanel said this week that the ...


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Originally Posted by Brian Hannigan

InspectionNews has just found the following information that might be of interest to you:


Bill targets home inspectors
TheNewsTribune.com, WA - 6 hours ago
Harriet Spanel, D-Bellingham, to standardize the home-inspection industry, which already is regulated in more than 30 states. Spanel said this week that the ...


More...

Actually there are two Bills, one in the Senate and one in the House and there's quite of bit of difference between the two.

Senate Version:

Page Not Found

House Version:

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/bil...Bills/3132.pdf


Here's a couple of "interesting" items from the House Version

7 NEW SECTION. Sec. 26. LIMIT OF LIABILITY. The home inspector
8 shall be able to limit the home inspector's liability by mutual
9 agreement with the client.
10 NEW SECTION. Sec. 27. STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS. All actions to
11 recover damages for any act or omission of a home inspector relating to
12 a home inspection that the home inspector conducts must be commenced
13 within one year after the date that the home inspection was completed.

Originally Posted by Lewis Capaul

...All actions to
11 recover damages for any act or omission of a home inspector relating to
12 a home inspection that the home inspector conducts must be commenced
13 within one year after the date that the home inspection was completed.

That's the law in PA, also - one year. Except for structural issues.

Originally Posted by John Arnold

That's the law in PA, also - one year. Except for structural issues.

I like the one year limit for claims, but I'm not sure about the Limit of liability question. There are court cases going on right now in Washington and other States over the limiting of liability within a contract, not just in the HI Industry. Washington legislators attempting to include this limit in their new law may run into problems getting it to stand up in court. Limits mean very little to a hungry lawyer, neither do laws like this one. It could save an Inspector thousands a year in E&O costs, IF the law actually protected you from further demands by clients who claim they didn't understand the contract they signed.

Both proposals are much different than the findings of the Washington State Sunrise Review Committee that published a report that actually made a little sense.

I believe that both these proposals should be defeated, not because I'm anti-licensing, but because they are totally worthless and useless.

Without reading too deep into the proposals, they look similar to what the licensing is in Oregon.

Most of our dispute resolution is handled through the State Contractor's Board and through the Office of Administrative Hearings (both of these as opposed to Circuit Court).

From my investigation of things around here, Limitation of Liability Clauses have been upheld, although I've never been far enough into the process to find that out. The mediation process is fairly lengthy and has very good results.

I really like the fact that I can get pretty far down the road of settling a dispute without anyone having an attorney. From what I learned at a national convention recently, my state is somewhat unique. It seems that in Calf. everybody just gets dragged into court.

Overall, it's good to see WA looking into licensing. They are heavy into the licensing of Pest/Dry Rot inspections which are included in any HI so it's not as though there has been no regulation.

I am just delighted that Jerry Domagala likes the bill and now I can sleep peacefully at night.