How do you know if your Home Inspector is compliant?

On September 1, 2009 Washington State finally enacted a law to govern home inspectors for the first time in Washington State. In the last 10-15 years, the Washington State legislature has attempted many times to establish laws which would govern home inspectors, but these laws were always shot down by inspectors who did not wish to be regulated. Why? Without a law there were little overhead costs for home inspectors, making it easy to do home inspections as a side job or a semi-retirement job. Few realized that the vast majority of home inspectors in, say, 2004 did not do home inspections as a career. Some estimate that over 60% of home inspectors did it as a side or semi-retirement job. In an unregulated environment, many inspectors were able to operate their businesses without a lot of overhead costs, so they had an invested interest in keeping the landscape free of regulations. With the new law you are likely to see the number of home inspectors in the area drop. As of now, the number of inspectors servicing SW Washington is less than half of what it was three years ago. When the new law is fully implemented in July of 2010 you will have even less. While it is always unfortunate to see people forced out of any industry, the new law does set some good minimal standards which will help consumers know that their home inspector isn't coming out of "left field". To find out if the Home Inspector you are working with is compliant with the new regulations, visit the WA Department of Licensing: https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/dolprod/bpdLicenseQuery/