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LICENSING OF HOME INSPECTORS <br />ASHI Position Statement <br />Where licensing is detemzined to be advisable for the protection of public health, safety, or welfare, <br />it should provide meaningful regulation that parallels the scope of practice and the level of <br />professional competency established by the American Society of Home Inspectors, which is the <br />intemational association of professional home inspectors and authority on home inspections in <br />North America. <br />Comments: <br />1. The cost to the public of state licensing of home inspectors should be undertaken only if it <br />has been verified that there is a need for consumer protection. <br />2. ASHI is opposed to states granting licenses to home inspectors merely upon the payment <br />of a fee and the posting of an insurance bond. It is also opposed to licenses being granted <br />without substantive prior testing by knowledgeable home inspection authorities. Such <br />legislation would do nothing to exclude incompetents, and would be, in fact, worse than no <br />law at all, for it would mislead consumers into thinking that the licensee had met a <br />government standard of qualification. <br />3. The American Society of Home Inspectors' eamed designation, "Certified Member of <br />ASHIR", is the consumer's best assurance that an inspector is qualified to perform a home <br />inspection in accordance with the widely recognized ASHIR Standards of Practice. <br />4. Home inspection is a unique discipline that cannot be included in, or regulated by, any of <br />the existing licensed fields, such as construction contracting, real estate, engineering, or <br />architecture. <br />5. Instead of licensing, meaningful consumer protection might be more effectively achieved <br />through the establishment of a"Trade Prnctice Act" that incorporntes ASHIR s Standards of <br />Practice and requires home inspectors to provide clients with a written statement of their <br />professional qualifications and services before being hired to perform a home inspection. <br />FOR FUI3THFR INFORMATION ON PKOCEDURES / REQUIREMENTS <br />AND A LIST OF CERTIFFIED MEMBERS PLEASE CONTACT ASHIR AT: <br />1-800-743-2744