Michigan to Vermont: home inspector license reciprocity

Vermont licenses home inspectors, but calls them property inspectors, which is why the credential is easy to miss when searching. Chapter 19 of Title 26 of the Vermont Statutes Annotated has since 2014 provided that no one may practice, or offer to practice, property inspecting without a current license, and it defines the practice as performing or offering to perform for the public, for a fee or other compensation, services involving the physical inspection of real property structures and other improvements in order to evaluate the condition of the property, including any safety issues or material defects. The Office of Professional Regulation at the Secretary of State runs the program under the director model, advised by two property inspectors who each have at least five years in the trade; there is no board and there is only one grade of license. Building the license from scratch takes 80 hours of approved education covering heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical systems, structural components, foundations, roof coverings, exterior and interior components, and site aspects that affect the building, plus a nationally recognized proctored examination. Vermont requires no insurance and no bond, which sets it apart from most licensing states, and it charges $275 to obtain the license and $115 to renew it every two years on 30 June of odd-numbered years. The office's rules also set standards of practice that bind from the first job: a Vermont property inspection is a non-technical, limited, visual survey and basic performance evaluation using normal controls, the inspector must operate fixed and installed equipment in at least one mode at typical settings, and the written report, including any recommendation for further evaluation by a specialist, has to reach the client within five days unless the client agrees otherwise in writing. Do not confuse this license with Vermont's residential contractor registration, which has been in force since April 2023 and is a separate credential for people who build and repair rather than inspect.

Michigan issues no home inspector license, certificate or registration, so an inspector moving here has no state credential to apply for, no examination to sit and nothing to transfer from another state. The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs publishes both halves of its own list and home inspection is on neither: the Bureau of Professional Licensing's occupational professions are accountancy, appraisal management companies, real estate appraisers, architects, barbers, collection agencies, cosmetology, professional engineers, hearing aid dealers, landscape architects, personnel agencies, real estate brokers and salespersons and professional surveyors, while the Bureau of Construction Codes licenses "Boiler, Electrical, Elevator, Mechanical, Plumbing, Inspector/Plan Reviewer, Residential Builder". That "Inspector/Plan Reviewer" entry is the one thing on the list an inbound home inspector is likely to misread, and it is not a home inspector license: it is the Code Official registration covering Building, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing and Fire Protection System Inspector/Plan Reviewer and Building Official, granted under Article 10 of the Skilled Trades Regulation Act, where a building official is defined as "a construction code enforcement person" and an inspector as "the individual who is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the construction of buildings, structures, or appurtenances under the state construction code". It is registered with the State Construction Code Commission, renewed every third year on evidence of code-change training, and it exists to enforce the state construction code on permitted work, not to inspect a house for a buyer before a sale. Because Michigan holds no home inspector examination, the National Home Inspector Examination has nothing to stand in for here, and any "certified" designation an inspector advertises comes from a private trade association rather than from the state. What binds a Michigan home inspector instead is general law: the Michigan Consumer Protection Act makes unlawful, at MCL 445.903(1), unfair, unconscionable or deceptive acts in trade or commerce, expressly including representing that services have characteristics, uses or benefits they do not have, representing that services are of a standard, quality or grade they are not, failing to reveal a material fact whose omission tends to mislead a consumer who could not reasonably know it, and causing a probability of confusion as to the certification of services, which is the provision that reaches an inspector who advertises a trade-association credential as though it were a state license. Beyond that it is the written pre-inspection agreement and ordinary contract and negligence law that set the duty owed, because Michigan has enacted no statutory standard of care for home inspectors and no statute governing the content or form of an inspection report. The one place Michigan law touches this trade is the Seller Disclosure Act: the statutory Seller's Disclosure Statement at MCL 565.957 tells the buyer in capitals that the buyer "SHOULD OBTAIN PROFESSIONAL ADVICE AND INSPECTIONS OF THE PROPERTY TO MORE FULLY DETERMINE THE CONDITION OF THE PROPERTY", and warns that the seller's statement "is not a substitute for any inspections or warranties the buyer may wish to obtain" — a statute that points buyers at inspectors without regulating them. The credentials to go to instead are Michigan's construction ones: any repair, alteration or improvement work that comes out of a report belongs to a licensed residential builder or maintenance and alteration contractor under Article 24 of the Occupational Code, or to the state's licensed electrical, plumbing, mechanical, boiler and elevator trades. Radon is not a credentialed add-on here either: the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy states that radon testers and mitigators "are not licensed or regulated in Michigan" and that it has no regulatory authority over them, recommending only National Radon Proficiency Program or National Radon Safety Board certification, so an inspector who offers radon testing in Michigan should check the rules of any neighboring state before working across the line.