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 January 1, 2020 and enforced since April 1, 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.