BN Licenses Florida

OK I want to hire another inspector. I am interviewing by email a gentleman who says he holds a BN license which is a building inspection license with a 1 & 2 family endorsement he says.

He also says: "this means that I have been certified to inspect all trades. I sign 4 point inspections with this certification. " Well that is great but, my question is: Does he also have to hold a State of Florida Home Inspectors license to do home inspections here in Florida?

I am a Certified Building Contractor also, but I still have to have a Home Inspectors license to do home inspections.

But since he is already an inspector I wonder if he needs both?? Or does the BN license allow him to do home inspections and commercial inspections??
Thanks for your responses.

Actually, a licensed code inspector does need a home inspector license to conduct private fee paid home inspection. The BCAIB (building code inspectors administrators and inspectors board) has not weighed in and declared home inspection within the scope of a licensed code inspectors license. Consequently, a licensed code inspector would need a home inspector license until the BCAIB officially states that home inspection is within the scope of their license.

Additionally, as a licensed building contractor (CBC), you do not need a home inspector’s license to conduct home inspection. If I am not mistaken, the CILB (construction industry licensing board) has declared home inspection within the scope of a licensed contractor’s (CGC, CBC, and CRC respectively of course) license- even though your statute (F.S.489 if I am not mistaken) does not mention the word inspection and does not have a standard of practice for home inspection nor any ethics provisions relating to home inspection. With that said, you as a licensed contractor with even rudimentary risk management skills as a business owner would be foolish to maintain a home inspector’s license in addition to your CBC license. If you have the home inspector license, you will be required to abide by the home inspector license ethics provisions and standards of practice. As a CBC (without a home inspector license), you have no ethics provisions (with respect to home inspection) and no standards of practice (with respect to home inspection) to be held accountable to in the event of an unhappy client or botched home inspection. In addition, as a licensed contractor, you can do an inspection, find defects, and offer to repair any defects that you find as a licensed contractor. As a licensed contractor, you could even have a financial interest in a home that you inspect.

In full disclosure. I am not an attorney and any advice or opinions stated above should not be relied upon without first consulting your Florida Licensed attorney and your governing board for your particular license.

Also,
private fee paid commercial inspections are not currently regulated in Florida. Consequently, no license of any kind is currently required for fee paid private commercial inspections in Florida.

Should be an interesting team…a builder with a building inspector. Steve’s right about a BN getting the home inspector license to do home inspections. He is not right however about dumping your HI license since you are a CBC, unless you never want to advertise that you do home inspections.

Good point. That particular issue has not been argued/tested yet. You are correct in that the home inspector licensing law/statute says that one cannot hold themselves out as or advertise themselves as “home inspector” unless they have a home inspector license. The same law/statute also said that one could not do a home inspection unless they were licensed as a “home inspector”. However, the CILB clearly did not get the memo and declared home inspections are within the scope of their license (even though their statute never mentions the word inspection and does not have ethics provisions and standards of practice for home inspections). If that is the case, I would speculate that it would be hard to make the argument in a court of law that a licensed contractor could not advertise a service that has been deemed within the scope of his license. While the home inspector licensing division of DBPR says that a contractor cannot advertise or hold himself out for home inspections, it would appear that the CILB would be not agree with that provision. I would like to see a test case in a court of law or even at the CILB or home inspector licensing division to see how this issue of advertising would be settled. I believe that my assertion or take on the issue would prevail. I guess we just need a contractor inspector to volunteer to test the case. especially since DBPR has successfully avoided answering the question for 6 years now.:wink: