Virginia to Oklahoma: home inspector license reciprocity

1. 1Other. Ninety clock hours of home inspection training from a school approved by the Committee of Home Inspector Examiners, or its Committee-approved equivalent, evidenced by a certificate filed with the application. The Board publishes a current list of approved pre-licensing courses; contact the provider for dates and fees, which the Board does not publish. Examination preparation courses are not qualifying education under the Board's rules..
2. 2Trade exam. Pass the destination's trade exam. The Oklahoma home inspection licensing examination. The Board reviews the application first, then passes the candidate to PSI, which sets the study material, sites, fees and dates. The rules allow open book, closed book and problem questions 'based on current national standards', score each part out of 100 and pass at 70% on each part; the Board publishes no content outline and does not name the examination. A failed candidate waits thirty days before retaking it. Oklahoma has adopted no rule accepting the National Home Inspector Examination in place of its own, and another examination counts only if the Board has an exam equivalency agreement with your jurisdiction, which it has not published for home inspection..
3. 3Application fee. Pay the application fee ($30). Application for license, set at $30 by OAC 158:70-5-2(a)(3) within the ceiling in 59 O.S. 858-625. It is sent with the $250 license fee as a single $280 payment by check or money order, and it is not refundable. A one-time, one-year fee waiver is available to applicants on TANF, Medicaid or SNAP, or whose household adjusted gross income is below 140% of the federal poverty line..
4. 4License fee. Pay the license or certificate fee ($250). Initial license fee of $250 under OAC 158:70-5-2(a)(6), paid up front with the application. The license expires twelve months after issue and renews for $150, or $200 once it has been expired for more than a month; a license expired for more than one year cannot be renewed at all and the whole process starts again. Reactivating an inactive license costs $50..
5. 5Exam fee. Pay the exam fee ($200). Examination fee. The Board's rule and the Act set it at $200, but the Board's application form says exam fees are paid directly to PSI when you schedule the test and are not part of the $280 sent to the Board, and the Board does not publish what PSI currently charges for this examination. Treat $200 as the ceiling and confirm the figure with PSI when you book. The fee is payable again for a retake..
6. 6Insurance. Carry the required insurance ($50,000). A comprehensive general liability policy with limits of no less than $50,000 combined single limit for bodily injury and property damage, required of every licensee by 59 O.S. 858-630 and OAC 158:70-5-2(f). The certificate of insurance must name the Construction Industries Board as certificate holder, though not as an additional insured, and must provide thirty days' notice to the Home Inspection License Unit before cancellation or material alteration. Cover has to stay in force between renewals and a fresh certificate goes to the Board whenever the policy renews. If the certificate lapses, the Board issues an inactive license until the requirement is met again..
7. 7Insurance. Carry the required insurance (if applicable). Errors and omissions insurance is not required in Oklahoma. Neither the Home Inspection Licensing Act nor the Board's rules mention professional liability cover, and the only policy the Board asks for is the general liability one. Inspectors often still carry E&O separately, because a general liability policy answers for bodily injury and property damage rather than for a claim that the report itself was wrong, but in Oklahoma that is a commercial decision rather than a licensing condition..
8. 8Continuing education. Complete continuing education. Eight clock hours of Committee-approved continuing education in the twelve months before each annual renewal, of which no more than two hours may be on Ancillary Systems topics such as plumbing, water supply, pools and spas, solar and generator systems, irrigation and energy auditing. Courses must be approved before they are taken and must run at least two hours. A non-resident licensee who has met their own state's continuing education requirement for renewal is exempt from Oklahoma's, on filing that state's certificate with the Oklahoma renewal within sixty days of its issue..
9. 9Other. The application is sworn. You sign it before a notary and, separately, execute the affidavit of lawful presence in the United States that 56 O.S. 71 requires of every applicant for a Construction Industries Board license. The Board's licensing office keeps notaries on staff and provides that service to applicants at no cost..

Published fees on this path total $480, excluding exam-vendor fees, bonds, and insurance.