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Home Inspections in NJ by Licensed Home Inspectors & Engineers 

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All NJ home inspectors must have valid home inspection licenses issued by the State of NJ.  Unlicensed inspectors may not perform home inspections in NJ.  Ask for proof of valid home inspector license before you have your home inspection done. 

The NEW NJ Home Inspector License Requirements 

About seven years ago the powers that be in NJ decided that all home inspections 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. There are now about 600 licensed home inspectors in NJ.  What the public does not generallyknow is that in June of 2005 the original strict requirements for licensure were drastically reduced, and therefore new inspectors obtaining NJ licenses after April 26, 2006 will not have met the original strict requirements for experience.

1. New licensed home inspectors may not have adequate training (in our opinion). 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, in the future, 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 train as an  associate under the license of an experienced NJ home inspector at all. Instead, all practical inspection training would be done as part of a 180 hour school course, and would be only 40 hours of actual home inspections done in a school controlled setting. I would not trust my home inspection to someone with such a small amount of practical 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  April 26, 2006 or before, he or she was required to have substantial training and experience. If after this date, maybe not!

 

For more news and one inspector's opinion about the state of NJ home inspections, you may wish to visit  http://meyershomeinspections.blogspot.com