Minnesota to Kentucky: home inspector license reciprocity

1. 1Trade exam. Pass the destination's trade exam. A Board-approved examination, requested directly from the approved test provider rather than from the Board. 831 KAR 2:040 sets what that examination has to be: at least 200 questions drawn from a bank of at least 800, covering building sciences and report writing at a minimum, proctored, and third-party accredited by the Buros Center for Testing or a comparable nationally recognized body as psychometrically valid. No more than ten per cent of the questions may be Kentucky-specific. The rule names no provider and the Board publishes no approved-provider list, but the examination the Board links from its own Licensing page is the National Home Inspector Examination. A passing score stays valid for three years. Fail twice and you wait fourteen days; fail three times and you retake the pre-licensing course before a fourth attempt..
2. 2Exam fee. Pay the exam fee. The examination fee is set and collected by the approved test provider, not by the Board, and Kentucky does not publish it. Ask the test provider when you register, and expect to pay again for each retake..
3. 3Application fee. Pay the application fee ($250). A nonrefundable $250 filed with form KBHI-1, payable by check or money order to the Kentucky State Treasurer. It is the same fee for an initial applicant, a reciprocity applicant and a nonresident applicant, and KRS 198B.706 caps the Board's license fees at $250 a year. There is no separate issuance fee once the application is approved..
4. 4Insurance. Carry the required insurance ($250,000). General liability coverage of at least $250,000, written by an insurance company or other entity authorized to transact insurance business in Kentucky. The certificate must list the Kentucky Board of Home Inspectors as certificate holder and must state that cancellation or nonrenewal of the underlying policy does not take effect until the Board has had at least ten days' prior written notice. A certificate showing continuous coverage goes in with the application and again at every renewal. Kentucky does not separately require errors and omissions cover, a surety bond or a net worth figure; the general liability policy is the whole of the requirement, and only an inactive licensee is excused from carrying it..
5. 5Background check. Complete a background check. Two checks, each completed no more than ninety days before the Board receives the application: a state criminal background check by the Kentucky State Police, or by a comparable law enforcement agency if you live outside Kentucky, and a nationwide criminal background investigation by the FBI. If the FBI cannot finish within thirty days you may file form KBHI-6 and send the result within fourteen days of getting it, but that option is closed to anyone with a felony conviction at any time, a misdemeanor conviction in the past five years, or a pending charge. The Board may refuse a license for a guilty plea or conviction directly related to home inspection, or for discipline against a home inspector credential in any state..
6. 6Other. The Kentucky pre-licensing course: at least 64 credit hours with a Board-approved provider, spread across a fixed subject list that includes sixteen hours of field training of which no more than eight may be in a laboratory, plus three unpaid home inspections under the direct supervision of a Kentucky licensed home inspector with satisfactory written reports, plus an exit examination. Online delivery is not accepted. It is marked optional here only because KRS 198B.716 lets the Board accept a training program or course of study completed in another state in place of it, or give credit toward it, where the Board finds that program meets or exceeds the Kentucky requirement. That decision is made on your own file, and it does not touch the examination. (if applicable).
7. 7Continuing education. Complete continuing education. Continuing education is a condition of renewal for anyone who will have been licensed at least twelve months at renewal. A licensee renewing in an odd year needs at least fourteen hours for that license year; a licensee renewing in an even year needs at least twenty-eight hours across the two-year period. Each block must include three hours on KRS 198B.700 to 198B.738 and 831 KAR Chapter 2 and three hours on report writing, both taken face to face, with the remaining eight hours elective and non-technical subjects capped. An approved pre-licensing course satisfies the first fourteen-hour requirement, and the statute caps the whole requirement at thirty hours per two-year cycle..

Published fees on this path total $250, excluding exam-vendor fees, bonds, and insurance.