NEW 2016 KBHI REGULATIONS COMMENTS DUE ON

Four — count ‘em — new regulations are in the works from the Kentucky Board of Home Inspectors (KBHI).
Where, before, there were 4, now there are 8 regulations.  Talk about a “slippery slope” in government!  That takes us from four slim regulations in 2006, back when licensing started, up to twice that many for 2016.
It’s not over ‘til the fat board sings – and, until she groans, you can chime in.
                                                        Highlights
The biggest changes are in license renewals, handling complaints, and CE.
They include a new “grace period” (with a price tag) for renewals filed late, a rule letting complainers take back their complaints (for an inexplicably short period of time), shortening the manufactured housing CE to 2 hours, and a “face-to-face” rule for CE (and prelicense) courses that basically knocks out 100% online CE.
That’s the “plus” side headline.  It’s government.  There are “minuses” too.  As usual, the bad news is the proposed regulations are even more junked up with all sorts of litter than may come back to haunt home inspectors.
For example, there is craziness in a rule on licensing requirements that says “the board shall deny a license or refuse to renew or reactivate a license to an applicant or license who fails to comply with a provision of KRS Chapter 198B or this administrative regulation.”  Just about everything you can think of is work with that.  What happened to other options, like reprimands, in the statute?  Since when do home inspectors have to “comply” with all of KRS Chapter 198B – which sets up the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, nearly a dozen other licenses, the state building codes, and all that.
Don’t miss this chance to comment on the regulations.  (To see how, check out the sidebar, “Comment Now.”)
Renewals – A “grace period” for late renewal submission finally has been provided.  Inspectors who miss the filing deadline (last day of birth month) can fix mistakes in their renewal applications.  The details are kind of weird, but it sure beats the previous idea that some kind of invisible guillotine fell and cut off renewing your license.
CE – Two key changes in CE rules are proposed.  First, “face-to-face” core courses are required.  Doing CE 100% online would be out.
Second, the manufactured housing requirement is cut to 2 hours, from 3 hours.  The hour dropped out of manufactured housing was added to “technical courses, including identification and determination [huh???], as acceptable in the standards of practice. [which section??]”  No one really knows what that means.  But it went up to 6 hours, instead of 5, to put that dropped hour from manufactured housing somewhere.
The “face-to-face” first went into effect on Sept. 4, 2015, as an amendment to a revision of the same regulation that went into effect on Feb. 6, 2015 but apparently was not proof-read by the Board before it went out.
Complaints  – A new rule makes clear that settling a complaint allows anyone who filed a complaint with the Board to withdraw it.  Once again, the rule is unnecessarily cluttered with details, described below.
Rumancik & Unlicensed Business Stealers – A new regulation pretends to cover unlicensed “home inspectors.”  But it is whistling in the wind – because it does nothing more than duplicate the state law that has been in effect since 2004.  If you have no idea how to take unlicensed wannabe inspectors off the streets, say so – and get professional help.  This regulation is like the Board throwing up its hands, waving a white flag, and tattooing “We’re Clueless” on their foreheads.
                                                              Details the Devil Is In.
815 KAR 6:090 – Procedures for complaints and administrative hearings.
 The problem here is that a good idea – letting complainants withdraw complaints – gets  tripped up with dumb ideas limiting the time for a withdrawal.
Sec. 2(10) – Withdrawing Complaints.  The regulation sets out the best general rule, that a “complainant may withdraw a complaint, and thereby render the complaint null, void, and without effect.”  This has the salutory effect of encouraging licensees and their clients to resolve any differences efficiently.  It also is a practical way to focus Board time and resources, since complainants who settle their cases almost always will not testify at hearings and also have signed confidentiality agreements.
But the rest of this regulation counterproductively complicates the rule, for no useful purpose.
It is pointless, and contradictory, to limit the complainant’s authority to withdraw a complaint to the time before an answer has been filed – as does subsection 2(10)(a).  What possible purpose is served by limiting a complainant from withdrawing a complaint at any time?
The window to withdraw before an answer would be no more than 21 days after the inspector was mailed a notice of the complaint under subsection 2(3).  Does the Board really want inspectors to be discouraged from resolving complaints 22 days or more after a notice is mailed to an inspector?
With that in mind, subsection 2(10)(b) is even more pointless, and only complicates things more.  The time that subsection (10)(b) provides to withdraw a complaint is much shorter than the time in subsection 2(10)(a), for no reason at all.  If a complainant can withdraw before an answer is filed, that window includes the shorter 20 day window from filing the complaint.
While there always is a place for the special provision in subsection 2(10)(c) – calling for Board approval to withdraw a complaint – that place is way too early in the proposed process.  A better time would be the date a 13B hearing is requested, for example.
In effect, the Board is saying inspectors should give up trying to satisfy the client once the inspector files an answer to the complaint. But that cannot be in the public interest.  Rather, the Board should prefer incentives for all involved to find satisfactory solutions, in part by allowing withdrawal at any time prior to a final decision.
This rule should be simplified by eliminating subsections 2(10)(a) and (b).
Read the whole regulation.  http://www.lrc.ky.gov/kar/815/006/090reg.htm.

 

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