Office: 165 Pretoria Avenue, Ottawa ON. K1S 1X1
Phone: 613.238.2801
Fax: 613.238.4583
email: roberthof@royallepage.ca
Office: 165 Pretoria Avenue, Ottawa ON. K1S 1X1
Phone: 613.238.2801
Fax: 613.238.4583
email: roberthof@royallepage.ca
Happy Holidays to all of my readers. Thank you for all of your emails and good wishes throughout the year. I wish all of you and your families good health and continued success in 2014.
Today anyone can call themselves a home inspector in Ontario. That is a scary proposition since most consumers depend on the opinion of a home inspector before making one of the biggest purchases of their lives. There are over 1500 home inspectors operating in the Province yet there are no mandatory training or technical standards for them to meet. The results are often a leaky roof, cracked foundation or outdated electrical wiring or plumbing that was missed and which ends up costing unwary consumers thousands of dollars to repair after closing. In extreme situations, consumers have lost their homes. Many inspectors do not carry errors and liability insurance, meaning that if they make a mistake, even if you win a lawsuit, you may recover nothing later.
The Ontario Minister of Consumer Services formed a panel of industry experts to make recommendations to change the home inspection industry, which included home inspectors, educators, a Realtor, a lawyer, educators, engineers and an insurance broker.
Their report is aptly titled “A Closer Look: Qualifying Ontario’s Home Inspectors”.
The main goal of the recommendations is consumer protection. This is proposed to be achieved through the following main principles:
The goal is to move to this new regulatory environment within the next 18 months, to permit home inspectors to become licensed.
I spoke with Graham Clarke, an experienced home inspector with Carson Dunlop who was on the panel. As Graham indicated, almost everyone involved with the home building and selling business, from real estate agents, lawyers, mortgage brokers, lenders, builders and appraisers are all regulated by the government in some manner. It is time for the home inspection industry to become similarly licensed and regulated.
The government is also asking for feedback. If you go to the government website at
http://www.ontariocanada.com/
then scroll down, you can get a copy of the form to complete.
If you have your own views on this important issue, send in your feedback to the government now. Change is coming to the home inspection industry, and the consumer should be the winner.
Click here to read the article:
http://www.thestar.com/
meaningful_change_