The Inspector Committee met recently at the Texas Real Estate Commission headquarters in Austin.  The committee welcomed its newest member, Scott Regan, to the Inspector Committee.  Scott comes with over 15 years of experience in the field as an inspector, HVAC licensee, plumbing licensee and educator.  We look forward to Scott’s impact on the committee.

The officers were selected for the 2020 year.  The Chair will be Lee Warren, the Vice Chair will be Shawn Emerick, and the Secretary will be Steve Rinehart.  The subcommittees were appointed by the chair as well.  The Education subcommittee will consist of Steve Rinehart (Chair), Barbara Evans, Mike Morgan, and Doyle Williamson.  The Standards of Practice subcommittee will consist of Shawn Emerick (Chair), Robert John Daehn, Scott Regan, and Dave Motley.

The changes to the Consumer Protection Notice (Notice) were put on hold.  There was some concern about ensuring that the wording would be adequate to both notify the consumers of the insurance requirements and an inspector’s ability to limit their liability outside of violations of Subchapter G.  The committee will work with the Commissioners and staff to look at the Notice. 

Some of the fees charged to license holders were eliminated as of January 1st.  The committee proposed approval of modifications to the rules to reflect the changes in the fees that license holders would pay.  

Additionally, at the meeting, TREC staff updated the Inspector Committee on the request for an opinion from the Attorney General’s (AG) office regarding a licensed inspector’s ability to perform sewer line inspections.  The AG has not yet issued an opinion, and this will likely be on the next agenda for the committee.

The changes to the pre-licensure process were discussed again as well.  The Governor’s office is reviewing the proposals that were made previously.  Due to the timing of this review, the committee recommended some minor modifications to those rules.  Should these recommendations be acceptable to the Governor’s office and if the Governor’s office review is complete in time, the additional changes will be proposed at the February 10th meeting of the Commission.  From that point, there will be a three-month period in which public opinion will be accepted on the changes.  The next meeting of the Inspector Committee will be on April 13th at 10 am.