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House Passes Home Inspector Regulation Bill
HB 27 Sets Standards and Builds Confidence in Pre-Purchase Reviews

(JUNEAU) - Alaskan homebuyers seeking some assurance about the condition of a potential new home would have improved confidence in the judgment of professional home inspectors, under legislation sponsored by Rep. Norman Rokeberg (R-Anchorage) and passed by the House today.

"Currently, anybody in Alaska can throw up a shingle and call himself a home inspector," said Rokeberg, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "There's no regulation, there's no registration, and I think this is unfair to the consumers of Alaska. By requiring regulation of home inspectors, House Bill 27 will protect both consumers and the home inspection industry."

Home inspectors typically charge about $350 to perform a detailed pre-purchase visual inspection of a home's walls, drainage, interior finishings, built-in appliances, visually accessible plumbing, heating, and ventilation, and other elements, Rokeberg said. Inspectors do not offer evaluations of a building's structural condition or other elements more suited to a professional engineer's review.

While mortgage lenders are increasingly requiring home inspections, Alaska lacks any regulations ensuring inspectors have any assured level of competence, or providing guidelines as to how the reports may be used by buyers, sellers, real estate agents, lenders, title companies, insurance companies or others involved in any current or future transaction relating to the house, Rokeberg said.

HB 27 culminates Rokeberg's four-year effort to bring consumer protection to the home inspection industry. It would require those seeking to become licensed inspectors to pass both written and practical competency examinations, to register with the state, to show proof of insurance and to provide customers written reports of the results of their inspections.

The bill would also protect inspectors against exposure to excessive liability claims by establishing a 180-day limit on the validity of their reports, and protecting inspectors against liability for unauthorized sharing of their reports, he said.

HB 27 moves next to the Senate for consideration.

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