Home inspection is governed by a patchwork: licensing where a jurisdiction requires it, association standards of practice, and a code of ethics you may have agreed to years ago and not re-read since. The details differ by jurisdiction, and they change.
That is why this hub is written the way it is. The pages here explain how the pieces fit together and what questions to ask. They do not restate the current rule for your state, because a page that is right this year and stale the next is worse than no page at all.
Where a page does touch a rule, it names the body that publishes it and the date the text was checked. Where something could not be verified, it says so rather than rounding up to a plausible answer.
How the subject breaks down
Who sets the rules
Licensing bodies and associations, and the difference between a legal requirement and a membership requirement — both of which can apply to you at once.
What a standard of practice does
It defines scope: what must be inspected, what may be excluded, and what must be reported. It is the answer to “was that part of the inspection?”
Ethics and disclosure
Conflicts of interest, referral arrangements, and the disclosures that follow from them.
Staying current
Rules change. How to notice that they have, and what is worth re-checking when they do.
What to take away
- Licensing and association standards are different things, and both can bind you.
- A standard defines scope — it is what settles an argument about what was in the inspection.
- Any rule you read anywhere, this site included, should be checked against your jurisdiction's current text.
- Cite the source and the date it was checked, or do not rely on it.
Nothing is published on this topic yet
Answers appear here only once they have been researched, sourced against material we can cite, reviewed, and passed the checks we use before a page is allowed into a search index. Being written is not the same as being published, so this list stays empty until one clears that bar.
The overview above stands on its own — it is what we think is true about this subject, not a placeholder. Where to go next is below.
Common questions
What does this hub cover?
How standards of practice, licensing, continuing education and ethics fit together, what a standard actually governs, and where the published text of each lives.
Will it tell me my state's requirements?
No. We do not maintain a current rulebook for every jurisdiction, and a stale one would be worse than none at all. These pages point you at the bodies that publish the rules so you can read the current text yourself.