The Kansas law regulating home inspectors expired in 2013. Gov. Same Brownback vetoed a measure allowing the law to continue, saying he didn’t see evidence that large number of Kansans were being ripped off by home inspectors according to the Wichita Eagle.
Kerry Parham, president of the Kansas Association of Real Estate Inspectors, and Jeff Barnes, a Mulvane-based home inspector, helped write the law. Parnham said the law kept incompetent or unethical inspectors out of the business, protecting the public.
Parnham went on to say before the law, anyone with a ladder and flashlight could claim to be a home inspector and go to work.
“There’s always somebody who is trying to make a quick buck and lacks a moral compass,” said Parham, president of the Kansas Association of Real Estate Inspectors and a home inspector for 36 years. “We kept the bad guys out of the business and had a set of standards for guys to follow.”
Parham and Barnes say they’re not sure if they will renew a push to regulate their industry in Kansas. Both men said they are nearing retirement age, and they spent “hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars” trying to get the first law passed.
Barnes said the veto of Senate Bill 37 “took the wind out of my sails.”
“The whole thing was just nuts,” he said.
