Inquires hard or soft should not be on credit reports for two years. it's an inquiry and should only have a year year retention on the credit reports.
Inquiries should never reduce points on a credit report, the concept behind this is not a valid concept and needs to be changed.
No company shall be allowed to post to your credit report unless they have been reporting for the entire length of the account when the account was active. As an example utility and telecom companies do not report customer activity as the accounts are paid monthly. But as the account becomes negative that information is allowed to be reported, and this is unfair practice on the part of the reporting company.
No paid collections accounts shall remain on a credit report for longer than two years.