We are pleased to announce, that after five years of meetings, discussions and communication with the Minister and Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Government and Consumer Services and the Workplace Safety Insurance Board, the WSIB has finally decided to change the policies that affect the Home Inspection Profession.
As of January 1st, 2018, Home Inspectors will no longer be in Class G of the WSIB Policy manual. We will be moving from Rate Group 704, code 4499-001, Testing, Inspection and Related Services, to Rate Group 958, code 7759-001, Other Scientific and Technical Services (Class 1).
This means that mandatory coverage that applies to the Construction Industry no longer applies to businesses that are solely Home Inspection Businesses. If this applies to your Inspection business, you no longer need to ask your clients questions to establish if the inspection is exempt or not, and you no longer need to get WSIB Clearance certificates for the Inspection.
We know changes do take a long time to take effect in government circles, and we would like to thank the ongoing efforts of Partick Auriol, Scott May and Len Inkster from OntarioACHI, Hon. Kevin Flynn, Minister of Labour, the MGCS team, including BenValido, Melinda Campbell and Kelly Houston-Routely as well as Jean-Serge Bidal and his team at the WSIB for the work that got us here.
We need to remind Inspectors that also provide Construction or Renovation services, under the new policy proposals, all your businesses will be considered construction. This new Rate Group change will not apply, even if you are performing a Home Inspection and not construction work at the time.
Contractors who are not registered with the WSIB, and who do construction work without a valid clearance number will face fines of up to $100,000 upon conviction. Those who hire contractors without confirming they have a valid clearance number also face serious fines and penalties
We hope you found this information helpful. If you have any other questions regarding the changes that will affect home inspectors in 2018, please contact us! For any questions concerning our Home Inspector training, drop us a line!
Inspired:https://www.ontarioachi.ca/wsib-policy-review/