I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4776 

To establish programs to provide counseling to homebuyers regarding voluntary home inspections and to train counselors to provide such counseling, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 18, 2007 

Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ (for herself and Ms. CLARKE) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To establish programs to provide counseling to homebuyers 

regarding voluntary home inspections and to train counselors to provide such counseling, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Consumer Protection 

5 Home Inspection Counseling Act of 2007’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PROGRAM TO TRAIN COUNSELORS TO PROVIDE 

2 CONSUMERS WITH VOLUNTARY HOME IN3 SPECTION COUNSELING. 

4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Housing 

5 and Urban Development (in this Act referred to as the 

6 ‘‘Secretary’’) shall establish a comprehensive program to 

7 train staff of the Department, contractors, individuals, 

8 and entities that provide housing counseling under pro9 grams authorized, certified, or funded under section 106 

10 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 (12 

11 U.S.C. 1701x) to also provide counseling to consumers on 

12 voluntary home inspection. The training program shall in13 clude development of a training module to train counselors 

14 as well as counseling aids to be used by housing counselors 

15 and suitable for distribution to consumers. The training 

16 materials shall be written in plain language and shall be 

17 comprehensible to untrained consumers with or without 

18 ongoing assistance from housing counselors. 

19 (b) CONTENT.—At a minimum, the home inspection 

20 counseling program established under this section, and the 

21 training module and counseling aids developed under this 

22 section, shall convey the following information: 

23 (1) That a home inspection in connection with 

24 purchase of a home is voluntary, but not mandatory. 


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1 (2) That the Department of Housing and 

2 Urban Development recommends that homebuyers 

3 obtain a voluntary home inspection. 

4 (3) That a home inspection is not required in 

5 the case of an FHA loan insured under title II of 

6 the National Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 1707 et seq.) 

7 and that a home inspection is not performed by 

8 FHA. 

9 (4) That in most cases, no home inspection will 

10 be performed unless the homebuyer requests one. 

11 (5) That it is the burden of the homebuyer to 

12 arrange for a home inspection if one is requested. 

13 (6) That an appraisal is not equivalent to a 

14 home inspection. 

15 (7) That the homebuyer may be able to make 

16 the purchase of a home contingent on the outcome 

17 of a home inspection if the seller agrees to such a 

18 contingency in the sales contract. 

19 (8) That if the homebuyer chooses to obtain a 

20 home inspection, it is generally to the homebuyer’s 

21 benefit to do so as early as possible. 

22 (9) That the homebuyer should consider re23 questing a voluntary home inspection. 

24 (c) MANDATORY HUD FORM.—Individuals and enti25 ties that provide housing counseling under programs auVerDate Aug 31 2005 04:07 Dec 19, 2007 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4776.IH H4776

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1 thorized, certified, or funded under section 106 of the 

2 Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 (12 U.S.C. 

3 1701x) shall be instructed to present and explain in person 

4 at a counseling session, to each homebuyer who is receiv5 ing such counseling, a copy of HUD Form 92564–CN, 

6 ‘‘For Your Protection: Get a Home Inspection’’. 

7 (d) ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE MATERIALS.—The Sec8 retary shall develop, in consultation with national profes9 sional home inspector associations, additional guidance 

10 materials to educate housing counselors on how to advise 

11 consumers how to locate, interview, and select a profes12 sional home inspector, and on how consumers may inde13 pendently locate, interview, and select a professional home 

14 inspector. The Secretary shall require that these materials 

15 be made available to counselors providing housing coun16 seling under the programs referred to in subsection (c). 

17 SEC. 3. CERTIFICATION OF COUNSELORS. 

18 (a) PROTOCOL.—The Secretary shall, in the discre19 tion of the Secretary, develop a new independent protocol, 

20 or amend existing protocols, to certify that housing coun21 selors whose activities are authorized, certified, or funded 

22 in whole or in part under section 106 of the Housing and 

23 Urban Development Act of 1968 (12 U.S.C. 1701x) have 

24 successfully completed training using the voluntary home 


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1 inspection training module and counseling aids established 

2 and developed pursuant to section 2 of this Act. 

3 (b) STANDARDS FOR MATERIALS AND FORMS.—The 

4 Secretary shall establish standards and requirements for 

5 voluntary home inspection counseling materials and forms 

6 to be used, as appropriate, by organizations providing vol7 untary home inspection counseling. Such standards shall 

8 conform with the content requirements under section 2(b) 

9 of this Act. 

10 SEC. 4. HOME INSPECTION COUNSELING REQUIREMENTS. 

11 Each person providing counseling for a housing coun12 seling entity authorized, certified, or funded in whole or 

13 in part under section 106 of the Housing and Urban De14 velopment Act of 1968 (12 U.S.C. 1701x) shall be trained 

15 through the voluntary home inspection training module es16 tablished pursuant to section 2(a)of this Act and shall dis17 tribute the counseling aids to be developed under such sec18 tion. Any homeownership counseling program required 

19 under, or provided in connection with, any program ad20 ministered by the Department of Housing and Urban De21 velopment shall be provided only by organizations or coun22 selors certified by the Secretary pursuant to this Act as 

23 competent to provide voluntary home inspection coun24 seling. The Secretary may withhold, withdraw, or suspend 

25 housing counseling certifications for any housing counVerDate Aug 31 2005 04:07 Dec 19, 2007 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4776.IH H4776

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1 selor or counseling entity that fails to meet the require2 ments of this Act. 

3 SEC. 5. PUBLIC OUTREACH. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall take such ac5 tions as may be necessary to make the existence of the 

6 training module and counseling aids developed under sec7 tion 2 known to State and local governments, nonprofit 

8 organizations, consumer organizations, and the general 

9 public. The Secretary shall further make the materials 

10 generally available for electronic access, including the 

11 World Wide Web, and via other means. Such public out12 reach activities shall include— 

13 (1) the development of a one page, plain-lan14 guage statement in conspicuous 16-point type or 

15 larger, rendered at least in both English and Span16 ish versions; 

17 (2) the development and distribution of national 

18 multimedia public service announcements to be made 

19 available to print, broadcast, electronic, and web20 based media outlets; 

21 (3) the development of an advisory statement to 

22 mortgage lenders advising them to provide notice of 

23 the availability of home inspection counseling at time 

24 of mortgage application; and 


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1 (4) the establishment, operation, and publica2 tion by the Department of Housing and Urban De3 velopment of a toll-free telephone number to receive 

4 requests for information on home inspection coun5 seling. 

6 (b) TARGETS.—The public outreach carried out 

7 under this section shall be designed to reach real estate 

8 professionals, State and local housing counseling authori9 ties, nonprofit housing organizations, employers who en10 gage in employer-assisted housing programs, community11 based organizations with expertise in the field of housing 

12 counseling, and high school guidance counselors. 

13 (c) EMPHASIS ON VULNERABLE POPULATIONS.—In 

14 carrying out public outreach under this section, the Sec15 retary shall place special emphasis on reaching vulnerable 

16 populations, including first-time and low-income home17 buyers. 

18 SEC. 6. REPORT. 

19 Not later than the expiration of the 12-month period 

20 beginning upon the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

21 Secretary shall submit a report to the Congress describing 

22 the actions that have been undertaken to comply with this 

23 Act, disclosing the actions that are required under this 

24 Act but have not at such time been addressed, assessing 

25 the results of this Act that have been achieved at such 


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1 time, identifying areas for improvement in the implemen2 tation of the Act, and making recommendations to en3 hance implementation of this Act. 

Æ 


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