Am I required to use a licensed home inspector when buying a home in Olympia WA?
Yes. If you are exercising your home inspection contingency in your purchase and sale agreement for your home purchase in Olympia WA, you are required to use a licensed home inspector. There is one exception to this and that is if you, the buyer, are personally doing your own home inspection. Under this circumstance, you would not be required to have a home inspection license.
“Can I have my friend, who is a contractor, do the home inspection?”
“My dad knows a lot about houses. Can he do the inspection?”
No. They are prohibited by law from inspecting a seller’s home (unless they have a home inspection license with the state of Washington). There are no exceptions to this law that allow for unlicensed people to conduct the inspection.
There will be times when additional inspections are needed by specialists. For example, an electrician may be needed to inspect an electrical panel. The electrician under his professional electrician’s license can do this and will not need a home inspector license, but his scope of work isn’t to go beyond his professional electrical licensing. The electrician would be prohibited from performing an inspection on the roof, for example.
Yes, you are required to use a licensed home inspector when buying a home in Olympia WA.
And sorry, your dad can’t do the inspection for you!
To learn more about buying a home in Olympia WA, be sure to check out my other tips:
What Buyers Can Expect During the Home Buying Process
And if you’d like to buy a home in Olympia WA, be sure to visit my website to see all the homes currently listed for sale.
This post was originally published on Francine Viola’s blog site, www.InTuneRealEstate.com where you can learn more about the real estate buying and selling process in Olympia WA.