Brent Hays, charter member of Lone Star ASHI, has been elected to the Board of Directors for the 2005-2006 term.
As Chairperson of the Legislative committee, Brent has kept the membership apprised of legislative issues affecting the Texas real estate consumer, such as the newly appointed TRCC (TX Residential Construction Commission) which is charged with developing new warranty standards that will replace all existing builder warranty standards.
Brent has also watch-dogged several recent changes by the TREC (TX Real Estate Commission) which affect consumers directly, such as new ethics rules requiring inspectors to obtain written permission from the buyer before the inspector accepts payment from or pays money to any party other than the client. In fact, Brent was actively involved in promoting adoption of this rule, encountering significant opposition but persevering on behalf of the Texas real estate consumer.
Brent also initiated discussion of and successfully promoted adoption of a TREC rule change requiring written disclosure by a licensed inspector conducting a new-construction buyer's acceptance inspection, informing the client that as the builder's representative, the inspector temporarily acts in the builder's interests, not the buyer's, and is not subject to the same state regulation as when that inspector works for the buyer.
The effect of this disclosure is to better educate the buyer about the need to hire an independent inspector & not rely upon the inspector hired by the builder to act on behalf of the buyer's interests.
As a building-code certified Advanced Inspector with 20 years of residential construction experience, Brent was
empanelled by the State of Texas as an SME (Subject Matter Expert) & helped develop a new bank of test questions used for the Texas Professional Inspector licensing examination. He also wrote the very first final exam used by Austin Community College for the home inspector class.
Brent has developed a reputation among his peers across the state, and among REALTORS and clients in the Austin area, as a learned student of building science, an active consumer advocate, & as a highly skilled, unquestionably ethical inspector.
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