Ontario to take charge of home inspections
August 23, 2016
By
CCE
Image: Thinkstock
Ontario’s Minister of Government and Consumer Services, Marie-France Lalonde, has announced that in the fall the province intends to introduce legislation to regulate home inspectors.
The government is proposing that inspectors should be licensed “with proper qualifications.” It will also set minimum standards for contracts, home inspection reports, etc. It says the legislation will not only protect buyers, but “will also create a level playing field for the home inspection industry, preventing inspectors with little or no training from competing with qualified professionals by offering lower rates.”
The province said it also intends to set up an independent authority to enforce the legislation and associated registrations.
The government’s proposals follow a consultation period and 35 recommendations made by a 16-member expert panel convened by the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services.
Ontario already has a self-regulating Association of Home Inspectors (OAHI) that has been issuing licences for 20 years. It responded the same day to the government’s August 17 announcement , saying that the stakeholder panel convened by the Ministry had “recommended a body and qualification system almost identical to what the OAHI has been doing since the OAHI Act was passed in 1994, only in the form of a government DAA.” It said that during the stakeholder consultations, “The OAHI was treated just like any other association and not given any recognition as a pre-existing regulatory body.”
The OAHI currently gives the protected designation “Registered Home Inspector. ” Currently there are approximately 1,500 home inspectors in Ontario.
Murray Parrish, president of OAHI, said they were looking forward to reviewing the draft legislation and hoped “to have a positive and pragmatic discussion of OAHI’s ongoing role in helping to regulate home inspection professionals in Ontario.”
To read the government’s press release of August 17, click here.
To read the Ontario Association of Home Inspectors’ response of August 17, click here.
POSTSCRIPT
See reader comment from Claude Lawrenson, NHICC inserted below.
For clarification – OAHI does not issue licenses, it has a Private Members bill that protects a title for RHI (Registered Home Inspector). Posted by a founding OAHI member……the ACT does not restrict others in the province from practicing home inspections or belonging to another association.
