NYS Department of State proposed Code of Ethics and Standard of Practice found unacceptable

            The Board of Directors of the New York State Association of Home Inspectors, representing the interests of home inspectors in this state with regard to legislation and regulation, has concluded that the recently proposed NYS Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice are fatally flawed.  The Board formed a Task Force, including leading members of all of the major national organizations of home inspectors active in New YorkState, to further evaluate the documents and to propose acceptable changes.  The Task Force identified several major concerns with the present documents. 

The proposed Code of Ethics includes language infringing on the professional rights and duties of licensed home inspectors, and would act in restraint of trade by preventing home inspectors from providing services beyond the Standard of Practice.  Without the rights normally accorded to any professional to educate and advise his or her client, home owners will be unable to make informed decisions regarding what is often the most important purchase of their lives.  The Code of Ethics includes numerous rules, regulations, and penalty provisions that belong in their own separate document.  These regulations do not belong in a document purporting to be a Code of Ethics.  Home inspectors and the public need to have a straightforward readable document presenting the ethical principles that every licensed home inspector should follow, without the document being cluttered with repetition and regulation.

The Standard of Practice contains numerous repetitions and errors, but most importantly does not require home inspectors to make recommendations or provide explanations of the significance of observed deficiencies, without which clients would be unable to make rational and informed decisions.  In addition, the Standards do not make clear that the home inspector has the right to provide services that exceed the standards as long as the home inspector is qualified to provide those services. 

NYSAHI Task Force proposes alternative Code of Ethics and Standard of Practice

In the interest of facilitating the development and approval process the Task Force has proposed a series of major modifications necessary to make the existing NYS proposed Code of Ethics an effective, meaningful and understandable document. 

The Standard of Practice as presently written was found to be too disorganized and poorly formatted to make modification feasible.  The Task Force elected to use the Massachusetts Standard of Practice for home inspectors as a starting point for development of a suitable alternative to the present proposed Standard. 

We urge our membership, and all home inspectors across the state, to review the new alternative Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice proposed by the Task Force.  While these documents were produced under severe time constraints and may not be perfect, we believe the good faith effort of the Task Force, representing all home inspectors in the state, has resulted in a greatly superior set of guidelines for our profession.  Please voice your opinion in support of these efforts to the Department of State and the Home Inspection Advisory Council members.  These documents that the Task Force has developed have the support of the Board of the New York State Association of Home Inspectors.  In the interests of the profession and the public, we urge you to ask the Department of State to set aside the present proposed documents and to adopt the Code of Ethics and Standard of Practice as developed and put forth by the concerned licensed professional home inspectors of New York State.