BP BHEAD INT S

AN ACT Relating to home and real estate inspectors; amending RCW 18.27.010 and 18.27.050; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature intends to regulate the practice of home and real estate inspection.

Sec. 2. RCW 18.27.010 and 1993 c 454 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "Contractor" means any person, firm or corporation who or which, in the pursuit of an independent business undertakes to, or offers to undertake, or submits a bid to, construct, alter, repair, add to, subtract from, inspect, improve, move, wreck or demolish, for another, any building, highway, road, railroad, excavation or other structure, project, development, or improvement attached to real estate or to do any part thereof including the installation of carpeting or other floor covering, the erection of scaffolding or other structures or works in connection therewith or who installs or repairs roofing or siding; or, who, to do similar work upon his own property, employs members of more than one trade upon a single job or project or under a single building permit except as otherwise provided herein.

(2) "General contractor" means a contractor whose business operations require the use of more than two unrelated building trades or crafts whose work the contractor shall superintend or do in whole or in part. "General contractor" shall not include an individual who does all work personally without employees or other "specialty contractors" as defined herein. The terms "general contractor" and "builder" are synonymous.

(3) "Specialty contractor" means a contractor whose operations as such do not fall within the foregoing definition of "general contractor".

(4) "Department" means the department of labor and industries.

(5) "Director" means the director of the department of labor and industries.

(6) "Verification" means the receipt and duplication by the city, town, or county of a contractor registration card that is current on its face.

Sec. 3. RCW 18.27.050 and 1987 c 303 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) At the time of registration and subsequent reregistration, the applicant shall furnish insurance or financial responsibility in the form of an assigned account in the amount of twenty thousand dollars for injury or damages to property, and fifty thousand dollars for injury or damage including death to any one person, and one hundred thousand dollars for injury or damage including death to more than one person or financial responsibility to satisfy these amounts.

(2) Failure to maintain insurance or financial responsibility relative to the contractor's activities shall be cause to suspend or deny the contractor his or her or their registration.

(3)(a) Proof of financial responsibility authorized in this section may be given by providing, in the amount required by subsection (1) of this section, an assigned account acceptable to the department. The assigned account shall be held by the department to satisfy any execution on a judgment issued against the contractor for damage to property or injury or death to any person occurring in the contractor's contracting operations, according to the provisions of the assigned account agreement. The department shall have no liability for payment in excess of the amount of the assigned account.

(b) The assigned account filed with the director as proof of financial responsibility shall be canceled at the expiration of three years after:

(i) The contractor's registration has expired or been revoked; or

(ii) The contractor has furnished proof of insurance as required by subsection (1) of this section;

if, in either case, no legal action has been instituted against the contractor or on the account at the expiration of the three-year period.

(c) If a contractor chooses to file an assigned account as authorized in this section, the contractor shall, on any contracting project, notify each person with whom the contractor enters into a contract or to whom the contractor submits a bid that the contractor has filed an assigned account in lieu of insurance and that recovery from the account for any claim against the contractor for property damage or personal injury or death occurring in the project requires the claimant to obtain a court judgment.

(4) This section does not apply to contractors inspecting any building, highway, road, railroad, excavation or other structure, project, development, or improvement attached to real estate.