The NEW NJ Home Inspector License Requirements

About six years ago the powers that be in NJ decided that all home inspectors in NJ should be done by a licensed professional, and that the minimum requirements for NJ home inspector licensing would roughly be the same as the requirements to join the American Society of Home Inspectors, which is a national association of home inspectors that established ethical and professional regulations for the profession. That was a great idea. It meant that the public could be assured that a professional home inspection would be done by someone with sufficient experience and credentials to do the job right. After five years or so of the usual NJ political ball game, the license requirements were put into effect, but they would not be enforced until December 30, 2005. December is around the corner, there are now about 500 licensed home inspectors in NJ now, and all seems well....but beware! What the public does not know is that in June of 2005 the original requirements for licensure were drastically diluted, so here is what the truth is about licensed home inspectors that will come into the field after the 2005 year end:

1. New licensed home inspectors will not have adequate training. Instead of needing to have done 300 home inspections under the supervision of a licensed home inspector, they will only have to do about 15 inspections, which will take place as part of classroom training.
2. New licensed home inspectors will need only about 140 hours of classroom training instead of 300 hours of training. Also, they may not have to take the nationally accepted exam for home inspectors, but instead may take "an approved exam" given by the school.
3. New inspectors will not have to serve as "apprentices" working under the license of an experienced licensed NJ home inspector at all. Instead, anyone with a high school diploma, and about 4 weeks of home inspection schooling, can call themself a NJ licensed home inspector. If your M.D. told you that he never served as an intern, but instead just graduated from a doctors school, would you run from his office???? I would. I would not trust my home inspection to someone with essentially no field experience even if he was licensed by the state of NJ.

So be careful NJ home buying public. If you want to have your home inspected by a qualified and experienced professional, you should ask when the home inspector got his license. If in 2005 or before, he or she was required to have substantial training and experience. If after 2005, maybe not! Also, make sure your inspector is a member of the American Society of Home Inspectors ( ASHI). You can find an ASHI inspector at www.ashi.org.