Senate Bill #630 passed the West Virginia Legislation directing and authorizing the State Fire Marshall through the State Fire Commission to establish licensing standards for Home Inspectors.

In October, The West Virginia Association of Home Inspectors, WVAHI, was organized with 19 Charter Members throughout West Virginia.

The WVAHI developed a Code of ethics and Standards of Practice for performing Home Inspections. These were then put in legislative form with other training and certification requirements and submitted to the Fire Commission for presentation to the Legislation for approval. This would be known as HB 4194.

HB 4194 would authorize the State Fire Commission to promulgate a legislative rule relating to the Certification of Home Inspectors.

2006

January 27

HB 4194 was introduced in the House by Delegate Mahan and was referred to the House Government Organization Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.

HB 4194 was a “rules bill” – a bill that authorizes a state agency to establish a legislative rule. West Virginia law requires a rules bill to be passed out of committee even if the committee(s) considering the rules bill does not approve of the legislative rule.

February 23

The House Government Organization Committee voted to pass HB 4194 out of committee with the recommendation that the legislative rule contained in HB 4194 not be authorized because of the Sunrise Review Application process. The Committee’s recommendation amended the original bill to prohibit the State Fire Commission from promulgating a legislative rule relating to the certification of home inspectors. HB 4194 then went to the House Judiciary Committee. According to members in West Virginia, a new bill will be drafted and introduced that does NOT include the Sunrise provision. After much deliberation in committee it was determined that the House Judiciary should agree with the House Gov. Org committee and pass the bill on to the Senate. It was thought that the Senate committees, having originated the SB630 in 2000 would realize the significance of the Bill and send SB 339 (duplicate of HB 4192) through as APPROVED. The bundle of bills was called the “Military Affairs” Committee Bundle and was sent back to the full House for a final vote.

February 27

The House Judiciary Committee incorporated the amended legislative rule contained in HB 4194 into Committee Substitute HB 4192. Committee Substitute HB 4192 is comprised of a bundle of rules bills. On February 28, the House Judiciary Committee sent Committee Substitute HB 4192 on to be considered by the full House. Committee Substitute HB 4192 was placed on the floor calendar for March 1.

March 1

Committee Substitute HB 4192 was read for a third time and then passed by the House. The bill was immediately sent to the Senate.

March 2

Committee Substitute HB 4192 was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

March 8

Committee Substitute HB 4192 was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee favorably with three amendments, which dealt with minor verbiage changes, also on March 8, Committee Substitute HB 4192 had its first reading in the Senate, and on March 9, the bill had its second reading. Constitutionally, a bill needs to read three consecutive days before the full chamber can consider it.

March 10

The amended Committee Substitute HB 4192 was read for a third time and then passed by the Senate. The House now needs to concur with the Senate Judiciary Committee amendments it adopted.

March 11

The House concurred with Senate Amendment and passed the bill with a vote of 98 for and 2 against with no abstainers. The amended HB 4192 was then sent to the Governor for his signature.

March 29

The amended HB 4192 was transmitted to the Governor. The Governor has until midnight on April 5 to act on the bill. The Governor signed the HB4192 into law on April 4, 2006

The WVAHI Board of Directors is in contact with Tony Carrico Deputy State Fire Marshal and is awaiting confirmation to assist The State Fire Commission with the creation of the application/approval process. We (WVAHI) have offered to assist them in any way possible to complete this task in a timely manner.

Up-dates will be added as they are available and the actual Bill/law will be posted as soon as the Fire Marshal makes it available.

Here is a link to HB 4194 as introduced for your reference:
http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Text_HTML/2006_SESSIONS/RS/BILLS/hb4194%20intr.htm

Here is a link to Committee Substitute HB 4192 for you reference:
http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Text_HTML/2006_SESSIONS/RS/BILLS/HB4192%20SUB.htm

Here is a link to Committee Substitute 4192 as it was passed by both houses and enrolled for your reference:
http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Text_HTML/2006_SESSIONS/RS/BILLS/HB4192%20enr.htm