Montana to South Carolina: home inspector license reciprocity

1. 1Law / code exam. Pass a law, rules, or code exam. The South Carolina Business Management and Law examination, 50 multiple-choice questions, passed at a scale score of 68. Every home inspector applicant sits it, whether they come in by endorsement, by the National Home Inspector Examination or by the South Carolina technical examination, and it is the one paper the Commission never waives. PSI Examination Services delivers it. You cannot schedule until the Commission has approved your experience and issued an Examination Eligibility Letter, after which eligibility lasts one year with three attempts permitted inside any twelve-month period; a third failure means waiting twelve months from that date before testing again..
2. 2Trade exam. Pass the destination's trade exam (if applicable). The South Carolina Home Inspector technical examination, 100 multiple-choice questions with a passing score of 70 percent, delivered by PSI. It is the part endorsement removes. You sit it only if you are not coming in on a qualifying out-of-state license and do not hold a National Home Inspector Examination pass from within the last three years. Applicants on this route qualify on a year of supervised experience or on a single Commission-approved course of at least 120 hours..
3. 3Application fee. Pay the application fee ($80). Application fee for the Residential Home Inspector license, due at the end of the online application. It is not refundable, and a returned check fee of up to $30 may be added to returned funds. Paper applications take a check or money order payable to the SC Residential Builders Commission; no cash is accepted. The Commission charges no separate license issuance fee for home inspectors on top of this..
4. 4Exam fee. Pay the exam fee. Examination fees are paid directly to PSI rather than to the Commission, and the Commission does not publish the amounts on its home inspector or fee pages. PSI posts the current fees for the South Carolina Residential Builders Commission examinations on its candidate site, and the Commission's examination page links through to them. Ask PSI or the Commission before budgeting, and note that a fee is payable for each attempt..
5. 5License fee. Pay the license or certificate fee ($160). Biennial renewal fee for the Residential Home Inspector license. Home inspectors renew on the same two-year cycle as residential builders, with the deadline falling on 30 June. Renewing late within the following year costs the $160 plus a $90 late fee. After that year the license can no longer be renewed and reinstatement costs $360, made up of the $160 renewal and a $200 reinstatement fee. A license left lapsed or inactive for more than three years cannot be reinstated at all: you apply as a new applicant and sit the examination again..
6. 6Background check. Complete a background check. The Commission asks about criminal history rather than fingerprinting everyone. You answer the personal history questions on the application and at every renewal, covering convictions and pleas other than minor traffic matters, discipline or surrender of any license, pending complaints before any licensing authority, license denials and cease and desist orders. A yes answer means filing a written explanation on the Explanatory Statement form with supporting documents and a criminal history background check, from the State Law Enforcement Division for South Carolina records or from the equivalent agency in your own state, dated within thirty days..
7. 7Other. A Commission-approved home inspection course of at least 120 hours, as an alternative to a year of supervised experience. This option belongs to the technical examination and National Home Inspector Examination routes, not to endorsement, where fifty completed residential inspections take its place. The Commission accepts a single course of at least 120 hours and will not add several shorter courses together, the certificate must match your legal name, and it is valid for three years. Approved providers are listed on the Commission's site. (if applicable).
8. 8Business license. Obtain a business license (if applicable). A residential business certificate of authorization, needed only where you will work through a firm in which you do not own at least 51 percent. The license itself is always issued to the individual and never to a company. If you do own at least 51 percent and want the company named on your license, you file its Certificate of Existence or Certificate of Authority from the SC Secretary of State, its Articles of Incorporation or Organization, and proof of ownership..
9. 9Other. Practice rules that follow the license. The inspection report must be on a Commission-approved form, or a form carrying the same information, and must mark any listed item that was not inspected; the scope and limitations of the inspection are disclosed to the client before the inspection is performed. Advertising must carry your name, business name, address and license number. Where a report calls a deficiency a building code violation, you are responsible for determining the construction date and the code in force at the time of construction and must inspect against that code. Performing repair or improvement work on a residence you inspected within the previous twelve months is a disciplinary offense..

Published fees on this path total $240, excluding exam-vendor fees, bonds, and insurance.