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Washington State Licensed Home Inspector (has a nice ring to it)!

I just want to post an announcement that as of 2:30 this afternoon Washington State became the most recent state to pass a Home Inspector Licensing Law when Governor Christine Gregoire signed ESB-6606 into law. On September 1 2009, it will be illegal for anyone to perform home inspections in the State of Washington without being licensed. The law sets minimum education standards, testing, and continuing education---among other things.

Charles Buell

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Posted by Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector on 03/21/2008 06:10 PM

Comments (12)

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Originally posted at: Seattle Home Inspector's Blog: Washington State Licensed Home Inspector (has a nice ring to it)!

Post is included in group: Puget Sound - WA Real Estate
Post is included in group: Licensed Home Inspectors

12 Comments on Washington State Licensed Home Inspector (has a nice ring to it)!

MAR

2008

That is fantastic!!!! I sure wish that would be the case in Michigan ... surprised it isn't, as would be a big revenue source. Any idea how many states do require licensing?

Derek, not sure at this point, but I think WA is around #33.

As far as I am concerned, it should be a federal law...

MAR

2008

I had a lot of mixed emotions when Tennessee enacted their licensing law. I still do not see where it has done any good. Now we just have licensed blind inspectors here.

HHHmm, that sounds good Charles. Good luck with the test. I'd start studying soon.

Sean Allen

Hi Charlie,

This is such a "good" thing! I suppose you have heard many stories of inspectors that had no business being inspectors!

I'm pretty surprised there wasn't a law to this effect earlier.

MAR

2008

Sean,

Charlie is the one guy I know who probably does not need to even think about the test. He is like a world book encyclopedia of information on almost every HI topic. Really!

MAR

2008

If licensing was such a good deal, other than a revenue source for the state, we wouldn't be complaining about all those state licensed drivers out there on the road.

It only effects the honest people anyway.

APR

2008

Charlie:

I am excited for new home owners. This is excellent news. I had a bad home inspection done and know what an incompetent home inspector can cost you.

The inspectors failed to tell me we have holes in our cedar shakes that you can see the tar paper through. The inspector also failed to tell me that we had LP siding on the house that was starting to come apart and form fungi, including a tiny bit of black mold.

It was painful to repair those problems before they caused more damage. I spent $50k above and beyond buying this house because my original home inspector was incompetent.

Charlie, I think you were the one that pointed these discrepancies to me. I don't know if you recall. I called you out on a pest inspection to see what we could do with a pesky woodpecker. You went above and beyond by telling me about LP siding and the bad roof.

Because of you, I was able to keep the cost of remediation down to just replacing the siding and roofing. Thank you for your input.

Competent Home Inspectors, like yourself, are gold.

John, thanks for the comment. I think in the big picture licensing has to help. No licensing of any profession is a gurantee of any kind of perfection of home inspectors but at least there will be some standard set---which has to be better than none.

APR

2008

Charlie,

Licensing is a good thing, but does not weed out every bad inspector. It does set a standard and as such makes it more difficult to enter into the profession. This has some effect on the competency of the individuals, but again not entirely.

I think this sometimes gives the public a false sense of security. It can lead people to think; If the guys licensed, he must be competent. As we know that isn't always the case.

I hope that the WA licensing law is a good piece of legislation. Bad licensing laws are just as bad as no licensing.

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