NAHI SOPs Updated

NAHI FINISHING TOUCHES ON UPDATED SOP

It has taken years.  First ASHI sent out a big update of its SOP.  Now NAHI is in hot pursuit.

The newest NAHI proposed SOP uses “significant deficiency” for the first time.  That’s the same phrase as Kentucky law, and ASHI.

Just for starters, the latest NAHI draft SOP also adds “at or near the end of service life” to its reporting rule – bringing NAHI closer to ASHI and giving up NAHI’s long-standing rule that the “intended function” is key, “without regard to life expectancy.”

There’s lot s more where that came from.  Many inspectors bet their houses on meeting their SOP requirements.  Inspectors also can change SOP anytime.  It pays to check out the changes here.

It has been a work in progress for years now.  A first draft circulated June 4, with another in July 30, 2013.  Then came an August 22 version.  The latest draft came out Dec. 27, 2013.

The new December draft was a massive change, compared to August.  Now, it’s looking like NAHI’s new SOP are almost ready for prime time.

Still, the sequence signals several things.  Of them, the most important is ditching hard number standards, primarily using ANSI standards.  That was part of the original impulse, several years ago, when the revisions started.

Second, the revisions show a gradual convergence of SOP.  The new NAHI SOP plugs in Kentucky’s key statutory phrase “significant deficiency,” for example, as the main reporting requirement.  KRS 198B.700(5)(a).  A fair number of other state home inspector licensing laws use that phrase too.

Second, the revision process – for both the NAHI and the ASHI SOP – basically caught the Kentucky Board of Home Inspectors (KBHI) totally by surprise.  Same for Kentucky state “associations.”  As a result, unlike other state boards and leaders nationally, Kentucky – except for PLI – said not a peep, and was uninvolved in modernizing any SOP.  Sadly, sound asleep would pretty much cover it.  Truthfully – outside of PLI – where else are you going to hear about this?  Let’s not forget: It could be a huge hazard to your business health, not to mention your wealth or your home, not to know your Standards of Practice.

Notice that even the current ASHI SOP – adopted Oct. 15, 2006 – took effect after Kentucky’s licensing law.  The same is true for the NAHI and ASHI revised SOP that are being put in now.  It also is true for ASHI’s so-called “Auxiliary Standards” – for pools and spas, for example.

Moving to key points in the changes, it is worth stressing that NAHI’s adoption of the phrase “significant deficiency” does not mean NAHI is giving up on its core rule for reporting.  “Significant deficiency” is defined in the NAHI December draft for the first time.  It sounds a lot like NAHI’s old rule – “not performing its intended function.”

“Significantly Deficient” is defined (in the Glossary) as “A subjective determination that a component or system is lacking a condition or quality that prevents the component or system from performing in a manner a similar system or component of similar type, age, wear and tear, installation, application and/or operation, would be expected to perform.  Defective.”

Best mere mortals can tell, “defective” pretty much sums up “not performing its intended function.”  After all, inspectors usually summed up “not performing its intended function” as just plain “broken.”

A requirement for a written contract, naming the SOP used to inspect, had been added in earlier drafts.  However well-intentioned, that requirement is gone now.

Also dropped was a requirement for “sufficient time” for inspections.  Not a bad idea, but one probably better addressed to real estate agents.

Expansion of the SOP language to include “multi-family homes, mobile homes, condominium homes, and modular homes” is new in the December draft.  In practice, it is not clear that will be any real expansion, compared to the current language.  The phrase “mobile homes” is archaic.  It sounds more like a Jeff Foxworthy joke.  (“You might be a redneck if your best friends drive over in their homes.”)  It may end up actually narrowing the scope of NAHI’s SOP, most prominently by leaving out manufactured homes, and some of the interesting fringe homes.  NAHI’s SOP always has said it applied to “buildings with one (1) to four (4) dwelling units.”  That is the same as the IRC (International Residential Code), and also most state home inspector licensing laws, including Kentucky’s KRS 198B.700(8).

NAHI’s present exclusion for appliances is gone.  This follows the trend in practice.  Clients are torqued if the dispose-all, dishwasher, or range does not work.  But they’ll overlook a DOA ice-maker in the fridge.

The exclusion for environmental hazards gets broadened.  Some interesting additions that would be excluded now include “the presence or absence of hazardous vapors, liquids, gases, or particulates, or other similar substances, including those associated with clandestine drug manufacturing.”   Call that the “Breaking Bad” exclusion.  Exclusions for termites, and any termite damage, stays in.  So does the exclusion for “indoor air quality.”  But the specific references to “insects,” generally, and “mold” are gone.  Instead, there’s a broader rule excluding from inspection “the presence or absence of any form of microbial, biological, chemical, allergenic, or toxic substance.”  NAHI’s old exclusion of the “sickness of any building” also disappears.  That’s a phrase you’d have known if you fought in WWII.  (It referred to SBS, or “sick building syndrome,” which was a catch-all for indoor air quality in the early years of the EPA and the World Health Organization.  The similar phrase “building sickness” was coined after Boston’s 60-story Hancock Tower opened in 1976 and people started getting motion sick.)

As always, “recalls” and problems with manufacturer’s installation instructions are not required to be reported.

The exclusion for condominium common property is widened.  The new draft adds to the exclusion “common property of a homeowner’s association, condominium, or other similar jointly owned property.”

NAHI’s old line that “the inspector will not be responsible for any repairs or replacements with regard to the property or the contents thereof” also disappeared.  However, the rule that inspections are “not an expressed or implied warranty, guarantee, insurance policy” or the like stays in.

There also is a new exclusion for “any cosmetic defect.”

As you might expect, NAHI is blunt about tooling up.  “The inspector is not required to use any special tool, device, instrument, or testing equipment.”

Next, a comparison of specific system and component rules under the three latest versions of our SOP.

 

The current revised NAHI draft is at http://www.nahi.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/SOP-Draft-12-27-13.pdf
NAHI’s present SOP is at http://www.nahi.org/about-us/nahi-standards-of-practice-code-of-ethics/
Comments on NAHI’s new SOP may be directed to the Executive Director, Claude McGavic at [email protected] or by fax at 941-460-5594.
To check out PLI’s take on the new ASHI SOP, before its national convention this January:
Call Now Button