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? <br />it on its own. Since the State is considering licensing these inspectors, he <br />thought the board should check with them. Mr. Ka.zak believed that licensing <br />inspectors is a starting point and he was in favor of doing that to keep <br />incompetent people out of the city. Mr. Burk pointed out that there were two <br />separate issues here: licensing private inspectors and ha.ving a pre-sale city <br />inspection. The pre-sale inspection would take time to implement, and inspectors <br />would have to be hired. Mr. Piar agreed that both could be done. Mr. Conway <br />stated that the check list was a tool to determine th.at an inspector was doing a <br />quality job and he would like it done even if the city had its own inspection. He <br />stated that at present registration would not mean much, however, down the road <br />when it becomes lmown that inspectors are interviewed and their work is checked, <br />there will be some value to being registered. He stated that State licensing did <br />not necessarily have much value because all a contractor needed was to be <br />licensed in a testing axea which might be in an area which had poor requirements. <br />If the city starts registering now in five years there will be qualified geople <br />and most of the unqualified people would be out of the city.. Mr. Piax again <br />mentioned ha.ving a problem o_F stopping in all the cities where he works to pay a <br />fee and fill out a form, he believed that this would be time consuming and <br />suggested that a11 the cities work together so this would not be required <br />separately in all cities. Mr. Burk stated that he had to do this as a contractor <br />in every city he worked in. He also noted that at present most contractors are <br />grandfathered into their State licenses, but later on tests will be given. Mr. <br />Conway stated that the contractors attempted to have only State registration, <br />however the State has taken a position that they will not take registration away <br />from local governments. Not only does this generate revenue, but cities can <br />ma,intain better control ove.r contractors than the state can, it is easier to <br />bring an unqualified contractor before this board to get his license revoked <br />than to take him before the State board. He believed that utilizing contractors <br />who are working is better rhan charging a home owner a fee which is basically <br />another tax. Mr. Kazak understood that this is difficult for Mr. Piar, because he <br />is in the business, but wheri he voted for things on this board, he voted for the <br />good of the city, not necessarily for a certain individual or a company. He also <br />believed that Mr. Conway was looking aut for the good of the city, and was trying <br />simplify this. Mr. Piar believed that the board should have an obligation to the <br />residents. Mr. Conway noted that home inspecting is no longer a small business, <br />80% of homes that are transferred have been inspected. Mandatory city wide <br />inspections might be necessary down the road as the city's housing stock gets <br />older. He would prefer that the city encourage owners to keep up their property <br />by using the various community incentive programs that are availablea It is hard <br />to make some people keep up their property regardless of wha.t is done. Mr. Burk <br />thought that perhaps mandatory inspections of transferring homes night help keep <br />up the property. Mr. Conway agreed that it might but was concerned that it would <br />be harder to sell this politically, and there would be people who would object to <br />this as an intrusion on their rights. He is not against mandatory inspections and <br />it may happen later an, bu-t that should not change licensing these inspectors at <br />this point in time. If poirit of sale inspections we-re required, he would have to <br />assign an inspector to go through list of transferred homes to make sure there <br />had been a report made on all of them. But after the house is sold, the buyer <br />would have to be responsible for these inspectionse Mr. Piar stated that in <br />Cleveland Heights there must be an inspection before a house goes on the market. <br />Mr. Piar again mentioned that under the proposed system it was hard to say who <br />was going to pay for what because the buyer must sign the contract within five <br />days and they would have negotiated the price contingent on the private <br />inspection and after that the city might come in and cite violations which the <br />buyer would have to pay for. Mr. Conway stated that the five day period is set up <br />4