Just licensed in North Carolina? Your first 90 days.

What your license covers.

• You need a license to inspect for compensation or to call yourself a licensed home inspector. The associate home inspector license (former G.S. 143-151.52) was repealed in 2013. (G.S. 143-151.50, -151.52)
• Licenses are issued to individuals only, not to companies. You can inspect for, or do business as, a company. (G.S. 143-151.50(b))
• Display your license certificate at your place of business. If you work from home, keep it on file there. (11 NCAC 08 .1009)

What every report needs.

The Board’s standards of practice (11 NCAC 08 .1101 to .1117) and the statute set what a North Carolina report must contain. The key requirements:

• Deliver the written report by the date in your written agreement. If you didn’t agree on a date, deliver it within three business days after the inspection. (G.S. 143-151.58(a))
• Describe the systems and components the standards require, state which ones present at the home you didn’t inspect and why, and state which inspected items don’t function as intended. (11 NCAC 08 .1103)
• For each item that doesn’t function as intended, describe it, say how it’s defective, explain the implications, and direct the client to repair, monitoring or a specialist. (11 NCAC 08 .1103)
• Put your name, license number and signature on the first or second page of the report. (11 NCAC 08 .1103)
• A prepurchase inspection of three or more systems needs a summary page that starts with the statutory statement “This summary page is not the entire report…” and lists the items that don’t function as intended. (G.S. 143-151.58(a1))
• If you call something a building code violation, determine when it was built or installed, inspect against the code in effect then, and include those dates and copies of the code provisions in the report. (G.S. 143-151.58(a2))
• Report where the crawl space and attic access points are, whether each area was fully accessible, and how you inspected it. (11 NCAC 08 .1106)
• Report whether readily accessible smoke alarms are present and operate their test function, and do the same for carbon monoxide alarms in homes with fuel-fired appliances, fireplaces or attached garages, unless the alarms are part of a central alarm system. (11 NCAC 08 .1110)

Get the contract signed first.

• Before the inspection, give the client a written contract they sign. It must say the inspection follows the Board’s standards of practice, list the services and the cost, and say so if the inspection is limited to certain systems. (11 NCAC 08 .1103(b)(1))
• Any system the client asks you to exclude must be stated in the written contract. (11 NCAC 08 .1103(c))
• Disclose any business interest that could create a conflict of interest before the contract is signed. (11 NCAC 08 .1116)

Keep your insurance in force.

• Carry general liability insurance of $250,000, plus one of: errors-and-omissions insurance of $250,000, a bond, or net assets, each in the amounts the statute and Board set. (G.S. 143-151.51(b))
• You must keep this coverage continuously. If you don’t, your license lapses. (G.S. 143-151.55(d), .58(b))
• Each January, send the Board a certificate of insurance for your general liability coverage, with the Board listed as certificate holder. (11 NCAC 08 .1006)

Plan for September 30.

• Every license expires on September 30. A new license runs from the date it’s issued until the next September 30. (G.S. 143-151.55(a); 11 NCAC 08 .1011)
• Continuing education is 12 hours a year: the Board’s 4-hour Update course plus 8 hours of approved electives. (11 NCAC 08 .1302, .1309, .1318)
• If you were newly licensed on or after June 1, you don’t need CE for your initial license period. (11 NCAC 08 .1302(c))
• If you qualified without completing the Board’s prelicensing program or its Board-approved equivalent, you need 16 hours a year for your first three years, including a Standards of Practice and Report Writing course in year one. (11 NCAC 08 .1302(b))

Keep your records.

• Keep full and accurate records, including the signed contract and the written report, for at least three years, and give them to the Board on demand. (G.S. 143-151.58(d))
• Report a change of address to the Board, and report any criminal conviction or discipline by another licensing agency in writing within 60 days. (G.S. 143-151.54)

Avoid the conflicts the rules prohibit.

• Don’t solicit repairs of defects found in an inspection you or your company performed. (11 NCAC 08 .1116)
• Don’t pay agents, or anyone else with a financial interest in the closing, for referrals or for a spot on a preferred-provider list. (11 NCAC 08 .1116)
• Don’t take a job where your pay or future referrals depend on your findings or on the sale. (11 NCAC 08 .1116)
• Keep inspection results confidential unless your client approves, except where public health or safety requires immediate action. (11 NCAC 08 .1116)