MyFloridaCode.com

Group, 

 

I have great news and fair news to report back to you regarding the home
inspection, mold assessor, and mold remediator licensing statutes and
amendments.

 

First the Great News; Thanks to the Herculean efforts of your e-mails
and the strong support of Rep. Workman, we were able to negotiate
amended language that was added to house bill 713 on the April 9, 2010
council meeting. These amendments effectively achieve two thirds of our
goals.

 

With these changes, we have retained the ability to continue performing
home inspections as state certified division 1 contractors (but we must
become licensed under the new statute) and more importantly, we have
retained the ability to perform both the home inspection and remedial
repair work for our clients, if they desire it (and they usually do).

 

With these changes, we have also retained the ability to continue
performing mold assessment and/or mold remediation services as state
certified division 1 contractors (after becoming licensed under the new
statute) but again, more importantly, we have retained the ability to
perform both mold assessment and mold remediation services for our
clients as they desire it.

 

This represents two thirds of our original goal and was attained with a
great deal of effort for reasons that will become evident as you
continue to read.

 

Lastly the Fair News; The last item we need to attain (since we are not
going to be exempted from the statutes) is an automatic or 'de facto'
recognition that if licensed as a state certified division 1 contractor,
it would qualify an individual for licensure as a home inspector, mold
assessor, or mold remediator. This, although not promised, is to be
dealt with during the rulemaking process performed by the Department of
Professional Regulation beginning in May of this year. I will update you
on the dates of the Rule Making Committee meeting in Tallahassee - and I
intend on being there in person! I will however be needing your
assistance, since I myself have no clout, am not a lobbyist, and do not
represent a specific association - it is only when they received your
mass e-mails that they listened to the will of the contractors through
the vessel that delivered the message - that was (and will be) me unless
somebody else is willing to pick up the reins. 

 

 

Why did this happen?

I really must agree with the lawmakers who told me they were "caught off
guard" by our e-mail campaign and my verbal arguments delivered to the
committee meeting. They simply had no idea of the impact of what they
were proposing. They had contacted the Florida Home Builders Association
with the entire statutory amendments that contained these calamities and
were assured by their lobbyist that all was okay with the contractors in
Florida regarding these provisions and loss of scope. I personally
talked to their lobbyist and after a prolonged discussion outlining the
potential losses by our contractors and the economic impact to the
citizens of the state of Florida, I still did not get any support
whatsoever from that lobbyist or the Florida Home Builders Association
in preserving the existing abilities of our scopes of work.

 

The Florida Home Builders Association has proven itself a valuable ally
through the years and I have personally donated teaching time at their
annual conventions. I do not know what has happened within the
Association and I wish no grievances with them, but I will voice my
frustration to them openly and ask them to "step up to the plate" during
the rulemaking process and assist me so that we may become grandfathered
without having to prove that we have performed 120 inspections in the
past three years under the home inspector statute or prove completion of
at least 40 mold assessments and remediations for grandfathering under
the mold statute.

 

Even though this may seem a shallow victory (considering the fact that
we can perform all of these services currently without any additional
licensure), remember that without these current amendments to the
legislation we had lost it all. Even if we had attained automatic
licensure, without this statutory change, we would not have been able to
perform multiple services for the same client on the same building.
Thank God we fixed that! So to all who aided in the campaign, pat
yourself on the back, for it has been a job well done.

 

Remember we are not out of the woods, but we are at the edge of the
clearing. I will be notifying you when the rulemaking meetings begin.
Until then, God bless.

 

 

R.J.Koning - Director

Contractors Institute

rjkoning at contractorsinstitute.com

8301 Joliet Street

 

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