Standards of Practice

Nonprofit Home Inspections conducts home inspections in Oregon and Washington according to the respective state’s Standards of Practice and according to our Pre-Inspection Agreement. Each state’s Standards of Practice and our agreement delineate what home inspectors should inspect during a home inspection and what components are outside the scope or not included in a home inspection. State governments implemented these Standards of Practice so that both clients and home inspectors would have a clear understanding of what is and what is not required to be inspected in a home inspection. Because these Standards of Practice and our Pre-Inspection Agreement are legally binding, please familiarize yourself with the home inspection requirements, limitations and exclusions included in these documents so you will know what to expect.

Nonprofit Home Inspections’ licensed home inspectors are professional home inspectors that are licensed by the state (Oregon or Washington) to conduct home inspections for a fee. In addition to successfully passing a rigorous licensing examination, all of our home inspectors have completed a significant amount of additional training under the supervision of one of our Certified Master Inspectors ®. Nonprofit Home Inspections’ industry leading apprenticeship and training program is helping to create some of the best home inspectors in the region.

According to state law, all home inspectors are considered generalists and are not experts in any particular field. That means that home inspectors know a lot about many different components in a building, but that an expert in any particular field may find more defects than any home inspector. Hiring a home inspector instead of dozens of individual experts in all of the various trades is a compromise between significant expense and increased efficiency. It is unreasonable and unrealistic to hold an individual home inspector to the same standards as multiple experts in all of the building trades. Because of these limitations and because of the state mandated regulations concerning home inspectors, unexpected and unreported defects should be expected.

As indicated in the specific Standards of Practice, home inspections are considered “non-invasive”, “visual only” inspections of a property. That means that home inspectors can only inspect what they can see. Defects that are obscured by personal belongings or other building materials are specifically excluded from the inspectors’ set of responsibilities by state law. Similarly, home inspections are “not technically exhaustive” and are not intended to reveal every defect or deficiency. Home inspectors are not code inspectors and do not have to research code compliance, recall notices, manufacturer’s instructions, property boundaries, etc. Home inspections are intended to reduce but not eliminate the risk associated with a real estate transaction. As such, a home inspection should not be considered as a substitute for state mandated disclosure documents where the owner of the property is legally required to disclose known material defects. A home inspection is not a guarantee nor a warranty and should not be relied upon as such.

Please note that because of the detailed nature of Nonprofit Home Inspections’ inspections, our inspectors may occasionally exceed the state’s Standards of Practice. However, any commentary above and beyond what is required by the state’s Standards of Practice and our inspection agreement is informal only, does not constitute an inspection, and does not expand the scope of the inspectors’ responsibilities. For example, if an inspector uses a thermal imaging camera to document apparent lack of insulation in an enclosed, inaccessible area, it does not mean that the inspector is now responsible for finding other defects in other inaccessible areas because that is not required by the state’s Standards of Practice.

In order to have a clear expectation of what is and what is not covered by the state’s Standards of Practice, please review Oregon Standards of Practice for Home Inspectors and Washington’s Standards of Practice for Home Inspectors. Additional information on what is and what is not inspected can also be found in our home inspection agreement. If you have any questions about the scope of a home inspection, please feel free to reach out to us or to your legal representative as soon as possible. The home inspection agreement must be signed within 48 hours of making an appointment and/or in advance of any home inspection.