InspectDayLicense
California home inspector license
California does not license home inspectors. Business and Professions Code sections 7195 to 7199 set what a home inspection is, the duty of care you owe, and limits on the work and on contract terms.
From California's home inspector law on
- Who sets the rules
- Chapter 9.3 of the Business and Professions Code, Home Inspectors. It sets no license, registration, certificate or examination for home inspectors.
- What a home inspection is
- A noninvasive, physical examination, done for a fee when real property is transferred, of a residential building of one to four units. It covers the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, and the structural and essential components, and is designed to identify material defects in them. This definition took effect January 1, 2025, as amended by SB 552.
- Swimming pools and spas
- When a property with a pool or spa is transferred, the inspection identifies which, if any, of the seven drowning prevention safety features in Health and Safety Code section 115922 it has, and whether each is in good repair, operable as designed and labeled as required. You do not need to find whether a feature meets the referenced standards.
- Landscape irrigation
- A home inspection report on a parcel with an in-ground landscape irrigation system may include an irrigation system inspection report, prepared by a home inspector or a certified landscape irrigation auditor. That report covers the controller, each zone, and any site condition that limits the inspection.
- Duty of care
- If you are not licensed as a general contractor, structural pest control operator or architect, or registered as a professional engineer, you must inspect with the care a reasonably prudent home inspector would use.
- What you may not do
- You may not give an opinion of a property's value. If you are not a registered engineer, you may not do analysis that would be the practice of civil, electrical or mechanical engineering.
- Yellow tubing
- If you see any shade of yellow corrugated stainless steel tubing, the report must say so and include the notice the statute sets out.
- Unfair business practices
- It is an unfair business practice for you, or a company that employs you, to do repairs for an added fee on a structure whose report you prepared in the past 12 months; to inspect for a fee a property in which you have a financial interest; to offer or deliver a referral reward to the owner, broker or agent; or to accept work whose employment or fee depends on the report's conclusions, preset findings or close of escrow. Some repairs by home protection companies, structural pest control operators and C-39 roofing contractors are excepted, on the conditions the statute sets.
- Contract terms
- A contract term that waives the duty of care, or limits your liability to the cost of the report, is against public policy and invalid.
- Time to sue
- A lawsuit for breach of duty arising from a home inspection report must begin within four years of the inspection.