Minnesota to Louisiana: home inspector license reciprocity

1. 1Application fee. Pay the application fee ($200). Application for license, $200 and non-refundable, plus the credit card service fee if you pay that way. R.S. 37:1477(B) caps it at that figure. The application is filed through the Board's online portal and is the same application whichever route you come in on..
2. 2Law / code exam. Pass a law, rules, or code exam. The Board-approved examination on the Louisiana standards of practice and code of ethics, set out in LAC 46:XL.301 and following and LAC 46:XL.501. Every Louisiana applicant sits it after the Standards of Practice and Report Writing Seminar, and the Board's reciprocity rule states outright that a reciprocity applicant must attend that seminar and pass this paper before reciprocity is granted. The Welcome Home Act allows a board to keep a jurisprudence examination on state law where its own licensure already requires one, so plan on this paper on either route. The Board does not publish a question count, a pass mark or a fee for it; ask the Board office when you apply..
3. 3Other. The Standards of Practice and Report Writing Seminar, run by the Board or by a Board-approved representative. It has been compulsory for every license applicant since 1 January 2007 and is named again in the reciprocity rule as a step an inbound licensee takes before reciprocity is granted. Dates are posted on the Board's calendar, which is updated daily..
4. 4Trade exam. Pass the destination's trade exam (if applicable). The National Home Inspector Examination, given by the Examination Board of Professional Home Inspectors and delivered through PSI. It is the examination Louisiana uses: the Board's Get Licensed page tells applicants to pass it by name, and the Application for Licensure tells them to attach their NHIE results. It is marked optional here because the Welcome Home Act does not make it a condition of recognition, but it is not optional on the Board's own reciprocity route, where LAC 46:XL.129 requires an examination from a Board-approved testing agency regardless of the origin state. If you have already passed the NHIE elsewhere, say so in your application..
5. 5Exam fee. Pay the exam fee ($225) (if applicable). The National Home Inspector Examination fee, published by the Board at $225 and paid to the examination provider rather than to the Board. You make your own arrangements to sit it. It is marked optional for the same reason as the examination itself..
6. 6Insurance. Carry the required insurance ($300,000). Errors and omissions insurance of at least $300,000 a year with a deductible no higher than $5,000. Louisiana requires it of every active licensee outright, alongside general liability cover rather than as an alternative to it, and the certificate of coverage goes in with the application and again by every annual renewal date with the LSBHI named as certificate holder. The insurer sends the certificate and any cancellation, renewal or suspension notice to the Board directly. Any insurer licensed in Louisiana is acceptable. If cover lapses you must tell the Board at once and stop inspecting, and failing to keep it in force is a ground for revocation or non-renewal. Only an inactive licensee is excused..
7. 7Insurance. Carry the required insurance ($300,000). General liability insurance of at least $300,000 a year with a deductible no higher than $5,000, carried in addition to the errors and omissions policy and filed on the same certificate with the LSBHI as certificate holder. Every licensee must also show clients or the Board's representatives proof of all insurance in force on request..
8. 8Background check. Complete a background check. A criminal background check from the Louisiana State Police, at your own cost, with the result sent to the Board. Results expire 365 days after the date of issue. Fingerprints are taken through the Louisiana Applicant Processing System at an IdentoGO site rather than at State Police headquarters, and the Board asks anyone with concerns about what the check will show to speak to it before starting any education. The Welcome Home Act adds its own test: no disqualifying criminal record as the Louisiana board determines under state law..
9. 9Other. The Louisiana pre-license program: 130 hours in total, made up of 90 hours of classroom course work with a Board-approved education provider, 30 hours of in-field platform training with a certified in-field trainer, and ten live inspections at resale homes where a fee is paid and a report is issued, with a mock report written within five days of each. Classroom hours must be finished within 180 days of starting and the provider's final examination passed at 70 per cent or better. It is marked optional here because an out-of-state license is accepted as evidence of experience and training under LAC 46:XL.129, and because the Welcome Home Act does not impose it. Where it is taken, everything must be completed within 36 months of starting. (if applicable).
10. 10Continuing education. Complete continuing education. Twenty hours of Board-approved continuing education in the previous licensing period, certified as a condition of each annual renewal, except that an inspector renewing for the first time certifies thirty hours. No more than ten hours of live or interactive live-streamed credit may be carried into the following year, the same course counts only once in any two-year period, and the Board may name mandatory subject matter for one course of two to four credit hours each period..
11. 11Other. A $5 state fee on every home inspection you perform, remitted to the Board with a monthly reporting form filed by the fifteenth of the following month. The form goes in whether or not you inspected anything that month. The Board allows the $5 to be passed on to the client provided the client is told. Filing or paying late costs $25 plus a further $5 per inspection reported, and three late filings in a calendar year can suspend the license..

Published fees on this path total $200, excluding exam-vendor fees, bonds, and insurance.