604homesblog

As someone who has been considering undertaking training to enter the home inspection field, I am both relieved that I havn't as yet invested a lot of time or money toward aquiring the "legitamate" standard of expertise now required by BC government,  and at the same time stymied as to which direction to persue now. I had looked at the (Canadian) CAPHI training coarse with its' upfront $4000 fee; no mean sum to pull out of ones back pocket. Add to that the investment in time, I must say that, it's difficult not to view this exorbitant training fee as either elitist or punitive. And what of the CAPHI injunction that only after performing 200 home inspections will CAPHI certify a trainee. Are we to take it that these uncertified inspections are to be offered pro bono? At a low average of 3 hours per inspection, this represent an additional 4 months full time unpaid work. Who can afford this training? And who are the hapless clients that would accept such a dubiously generated report in the first place? Does CAPHI offer an apprentisship program? Does some panel of home inspection experts vet these many thousands of student trainee reports?

In the States where building codes are as stringent if not more so than in Canada, one of thier most prestgious and well established home inspection and training bodies  NATCHI or Inter-NATCHI, as thier international branch is known, offers comprehensive training for home inspectors along with on going training contingent to tha maintanance of certification for about one tenth the cost of similar training in Canada. The weakness of Inter-NATCHI's apprach, as far as I can make out, is that while thier training is excellent and thier program of ongoing support is attractive and thier low tuition makes them accesable to more people, they tend to set the industry standards' bar too low by unleashing student trainees into the inspection field with a minimum of training. So, there is a vast difference between the expertise delivered by one inspector over another, depending on training and experience.

So, having compared these systems, and taken note of the recent announcement,of what is surely overdue regulation of the industry, how would someone in my position, trying to get a good start in the industry, find out what the parameters of the new government standards are and by what measure are these standards to be met? Are there accepted training coarses within Canada and without? Are there tests that can be challenged by those already practicing in the field?

I would welcome some answers to these questions.