I'm new to the forums here and just learning the business too. I'm trying to find out if there is a format for a standard contract that I could use or do you make the contract for your clients from scratch.

Any help would be very appreciated.

Thanks All

Anyway, I thought you guys might like to see what a home inspection report looks like in Britain. Click on this link. It will take you to a real estate listing in Great Britain. Once there, scroll down to "Property Info" and click on the blue link entitled HIP. That will open up the inspection report for this home.

Enjoy.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Here is what I found:

http://maps.google.com/maps?rls=com.mic ... CCAQ8gEwAA

Bob is pledged to provide professional home inspections and licensed home inspection services to his clients. Specializing in Plumbing systems, Heating systems, Cooling systems, Electrical systems, Private septic systems, Fireplaces, Insects & Vermin and Roofs.

Link deleted

……….ITS TIME THE OAHI MEMBERS KNOW…………….

I am quite confident that there will some comment about the following letter, but it is time the OAHI members know where yet another gross waste of their membership fees has been going. I also realize that the largest reason this has happened is because the OAHI board hates my guts with a passion and not one of them will admit that what has happened here is wrong and somebody….anybody within the board should have stopped this many, many months ago.

I will begin in September of 2007. The OAHI Kingston Regional Meeting Group attempts to reorganize with a Meeting in Kingston. It was an open meeting asking for anyone to attend. In case you don’t know the Ontario Lakeshore from Oshawa to the Quebec Border has less than 25 members, of which 17 are RHI’s. In the Belleville/Quinte region there are “Oâ€

Cheers,

(link to article):

http://www.bdcnetwork.com/index.asp?lay ... 2&nid=2073

I have a couple of questions: How does the general public feel about this? I think it's great for the environment, but as of now the fluorescent bulbs are much more expensive. I try to use them in my house, but I still have some cheap old incandescent in some fixtures.

Is there any "talk", about the government helping in lowering the cost of fluorescent bulbs in any way?

What kind of service is over there for residential? (110/120V or 220/240V)

Just asking for my own personal trivial knowledge.

Anyway, can anybody fill me in on the requirements to do home/building inspections in Ontario, Canada?

Maybe give me a web address to go to?

Thanks,

Steve

Hope you don't mind me dropping in. I've seen from your postings that you're aware of the proposals to introduce reports in the UK.

I am intending to become a home inspector on completion of my (very expensive) course.

As you may have heard, the Govt. here did a recent complete U-turn on its plans to introduce mandatory inspections in June of 2007.

We have a similar forum in the UK run by Ryan-

http://homeinspectorforum.co.uk. It would be great to have some of you guys over for discussion, compare notes and cheer up a couple of hundred, very worried potential Home Inspectors. Some are looking at a loss of $15,000 in course fees alone.

Hope to see you.

Bosco

Buying a house is said to be one of life’s most stressful experiences. Buying a property in Spain that is a 2 -3 hour flight away can only add to the stress, but when Roy Howitt bought a Spanish property it created a business providing professional home inspections (snagging services*), for new build properties, to avoid the dream of owning a Spanish home turning into a nightmare.

The service was originally launched in The Costa Blanca, to provide an inspections (snagging reports) for property investors and due to demand is now available to private buyers and has expended to cover The Costa Calida, Costa Almeria and Andalucia areas.

The company was formed by Roy Howitt after his experience of buying a new apartment in the Costs Blanca, on an urbanisation of 193 properties, and when he discovered some major defects, could not find a company that could provide a snagging inspection, or advice and discovered that some Estate Agents really do not provide any after care.

Buying a property is exciting and you arrive expecting to be able to move into your new dream home. The agent will normally request that you inspect on a one day and complete at the Notary the same or the next day which allows no time to get the builder to repair any defects. Emotionally you want to get moved, you may need to get rental income, you possibly have organised furniture delivery and installation of an alarm so often complete regardless of how many defects the property has or even if the pool isn’t finished, or the property isn’t quite finished.

Roy’s own experiences demonstrates what can go wrong. "We arrived on site to snag the property, and were horrified to find the pool not completed, no paths or access, and no water & electricity connected to the property, a 3 bed roomed apartment. We had been assured that everything was finished, and that we would be able to move straight in. With no lighting and a bathroom and kitchen without windows it was difficult to check. I arrived without any tools, torches etc. but I found 36 defects - mostly tiling and decoration, and stupidly completed.

The following day, when I was given unlimited access and the electricity and water was on, I could see lots more problems and luckily, via a local builder, found a contact with home inspection experience, who snagged the property properly and found 117 defects including, water outlets not connected; loose window and door frames; 8 sockets and switches not working; no vent in the bathroom; and a large solarium area that needed relaying because the tiles were loose and lifting.

20-20 hindsight is a great thing but I definitely would not have completed on the property with these problems, and now knowing how long it can take to get defects fixed, I would not have completed on the property if I had been able to get the information from a professional home inspection."

Roy felt that the developers took advantage of buyers’ ignorance of the process and their legal rights on standards, and took little responsibility for spotting any defects themselves. "Plus the language barrier didn’t help when I was asked to sign off on a snagging list in Spanish," So InspectaHomeSpain was launched to provide homeowners with the expertise of an industry professional and to take the stress out of what is already a highly traumatic process. The news of the service spread and they checked 56 properties on the same urbanisation and identified more than 7000 individual defects.

InspectaHomeSpain provides new home inspections in The Costa Blanca, Costa Caliida, Costa Almeria and Andalucia areas and has a team of freelance snagging inspectors from backgrounds including site management, surveying, architecture and civil engineering and provides help and advice to buyers via e-mail telephone and their website, www.inspectahomespain.com which includes a guide to DIY snagging, help and advice plus examples of the most common defects found in Spain.

Reports are provided in English & Spanish within 72 hours of the inspection, and prices start from €150 - less than the cost of a typical airline ticket

For more information and advice see www.inspectahomespain.com or call (34) 965 31 97 43

*Editor's note: A "snag" is the British slang term for a new construction defect. "Snagging" is the British slang term used for new construction inspections.

All that is about to change, as things begin to heat up since last week's passage of a law that requires accreditation and licensing of all home inspectors, standardizes education requirements and establishes a uniform standard of care, code of ethics and minimum reporting requirements for the profession.

Unlike states who've adopted licensing of HI's in the US, there won't be any "grandfathering" of 'established' inspectors in the UK. While members of RICS are presumed to have a leg up over other applicants for the 7,500 to 10,000 inspectors job slots called for, The Awarding Body for the Built Environment (ABBE) has received full authority from the Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA) to require that all inspectors prove they are qualified to be accredited with a new professional designation for inspectors known as the ABBE Diploma in Home Inspection.

This means that even very experienced RICS candidates must submit a resume, verify their education, undergo testing and submit a predetermined number of reports to be reviewed by the accrediting authority, before they receive accreditation and can work in the field.

For those without any construction-related background, the career path will be difficult and is going to require approximately 3 years of full-time post-secondary education, in order to reach the minimum education level required to enter the field as an apprentice.

Especially unhappy are the Real Estate professionals, who were opposed to the Home Information Packs (HIP's), which, if a 6 month trial in 2006 is successful, by 2007 must contain, among other things, a Home Condition Report (HCR) done by an accredited inspector on every house put up for sale in England and Wales ( Talk about the holy grail! ).

For more information, click here.