Minnesota 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.

Minnesota issues no statewide home inspector license, so there is no state credential to apply for, no state examination and nothing to transfer from another state, and a buyer's home inspection can be performed anywhere in Minnesota by anyone. Chapter 326B of the statutes carries every construction credential the Department of Labor and Industry issues — the state building code and its building officials and construction code inspectors, elevators, electrical, plumbing, water conditioning, high pressure piping, boilers, contractor registration, and the residential trades licenses for residential building contractors, remodelers, roofers and manufactured home installers — and no section of it creates a home inspector license; a 2006 bill that would have added one was not enacted. Where a credential does exist it is issued by a city, not by the state: Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Bloomington each require a pre-sale evaluation of the home before it can be marketed, and each will accept that evaluation only from an evaluator it has licensed itself. Saint Paul's license is the demanding one and it is the one place in Minnesota where the National Home Inspector Examination counts: an applicant must already hold a passed NHIE before being admitted to the city's own written test, then pass a practical evaluation of a test house, carry insurance and pay an annual license fee. What binds an inspector doing ordinary unlicensed work is general law: the Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act makes unlawful any fraud, unfair or unconscionable practice, false promise, misrepresentation or deceptive practice in connection with the sale of merchandise, which the statute defines to include services, and Minn. Stat. section 8.31, subdivision 3a lets an injured person sue for damages, costs, investigation costs, reasonable attorney's fees and equitable relief. Beyond that it is the written pre-inspection agreement and ordinary contract and negligence law that set the duty owed, because Minnesota has enacted no statutory standard of care for home inspectors and no statute governing the content or form of a private inspection report. Two adjacent credentials matter in practice. Radon is licensed: since January 1, 2019 the Minnesota Radon Licensing Act has required an annual license from the commissioner of health for anyone who tests for radon for compensation, as a measurement professional, and separately for mitigation professionals, mitigation companies and analysis laboratories, so an inspector cannot add a radon test to the job without one. And any repair, remodeling or roofing work that comes out of a report belongs to a licensed residential building contractor, remodeler or roofer under chapter 326B, or to the state's licensed electrical, plumbing, mechanical and high pressure piping trades.