Where a Rhode Island home inspector license transfers

Rhode Island licenses home inspectors statewide, and this is a license rather than a registration. The Contractors' Registration and Licensing Board runs both programs and draws the line itself: registration is required for contractors, while licensure is required for home inspectors, associate home inspectors and a short list of other trades. Anyone who inspects a residential building for a client for a fee must hold the license, which has been required since 1 January 2020 and enforced since 1 April 2020. There are two tiers. The Home Inspector license is the full, independent credential and is the one an inspector arriving from another state seeks; the Associate Home Inspector license is an entry-level grade whose holder works only under the direct supervision of a licensed home inspector, and the two are separated by experience, 100 compensated inspections against 50 assisted ones. Insurance is unusually heavy here: every licensee at both tiers files a $500,000 general liability certificate and a $500,000 errors and omissions certificate with the Board, keeps both in force, and loses the license immediately if either lapses. Licenses run two years and cost $200, and renewal turns on 12 hours of Board-approved continuing education.