Was Your Home Inspector Licensed? In 2021, Maybe Not

I want to stress this point at the start - MOST REALTORS ARE WONDERFUL PEOPLE AND PROFESSIONAL IN THEIR CAREERS!

That said, let’s move on.

You have an accepted offer on a new home and now you need an inspection. Since you only need these on a once-in-a-decade basis, you don’t know who to use so, you followed your Realtor’s suggestion and hired a home inspector based on their favorable comments. You assume that the Realtor knows who is the best inspector, too. In many cases, that is quite true. They know the best inspectors, refer them, and expect them to perform to standard. You expect the same. You want the professional who gets it right.

That, unfortunately, does not always happen. There are bad apples in the inspector ranks, just as there are in any industry, but there is nearly no mechanism to remove them short of litigation which most people do not want to pursue. You would think the real estate agents would know who is a lousy inspector and they would eventually run them out of business.

You would be incorrect. There are bad apples in the ranks of the real estate agents, too. They don’t want a top-flight inspection. They want a deal that closes. Period. End-of-story. They go with the ‘easy’ inspector and hate the ‘deal-killer.’ They will, in fact, go so far as to prohibit a licensed inspector from inspecting a property in what appears to be a violation of their own contracts if that inspector is too thorough.

But even when they are good and honest, there’s a major flaw in the referral system in real estate.

How do you know the inspector is legally qualified to perform inspections in the State of Washington? If you think your real estate agent knows who and who is not licensed, I have bad news for you. They do not verify licenses. In fact, I have had exactly one request for proof of license. Mine is current, obviously. I am the longest-serving, continuously-licensed inspector in our area.

By my estimate, between five and eight percent of all inspections completed in Whitman and Asotin Counties in 2021 were performed by inspectors with expired licenses.

It used to be relatively easy to verify the license status of an inspector from the Department of Licensing site. Now, they have instituted Secure Access Washington which adds quite a few steps to what was a simple process.

Of course, you can always ask - and always should. I carry an electronic version of my license with me to all inspections. It’s not that complicated.

As for what can be done if you think your inspector wasn’t licensed, your options are limited. If you reach out to me by phone or email, I can confirm the information for you. Note that I will not put that information online publicly. You can search the DoL information yourself.

If you discover that your inspector was not operating with an active home inspection license in Washington State during 2021, I recommend contacting the Department of Licensing. RCW 18.280.140 allows the DoL to issue a civil infraction and fine for operating under an expired license.

You should also probably tell your Realtor. Please be nice to them. They were trusting the inspector to be honest, too.