Lack of home inspector regulations leaves buyers on the hook

Alyssa Hanson thought she had done her due diligence onthe home inspection front.

Hanson brought in three professionals a home inspector, aseptic tank inspector and a specialist to take a look at thefireplace and the wood stove before she and her family purchasedtheir dream home, a 2,000 square foot house with a view of theRideau River in the southern part of Ottawa.

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A month after they had moved in, water started seeping into thebasement.

Hanson says at least six contractors have come by to survey thedamage.

"Every single one of them said, 'How did your house inspectornot catch the fact that there is water in the basement?'"Hansonrecalled in an interview.

"Obviously the house inspector can't open up a wall and look,but there is a spot where it was unfinished, and it was very obviousto everyone that came in that there was water coming in, in thatunfinished area."

Rusted support beams and rotting carpet tacking should have madeit evident that the problem had existed for years, says Hanson.

The leaky foundation will cost Hanson $12,000 to repair a heftyprice tag after pouring all of her savings into the downpayment.

Consumers rely on home inspectors to help them vet what is oftenthe largest purchase and investment of their lives. If an inspectorfails to spot an issue, that can leave the homeowner on the hook forthousands of dollars' worth of unexpected costs.

Yet in most Canadian provinces and territories, includingOntario, anyone can call themselves a home inspector -- regardless ofwhether or not they have completed any sort of professionaltraining.

That may soon change in Ontario, anyway. The provincialgovernment says it plans to introduce legislation aimed at
regulating the home inspection industry sometime this year.

Ontario first started discussing plans to license home inspectorsback in 2013, when it assembled a panel of industry experts to drafta report on the topic.

No standardized, country-wide rules for qualifying

The panel made a number of recommendations, including thatinspectors be required to pass a written exam and a field test inorder to become licensed. The panel also recommended having asingle, clearly defined standard for all home inspections.

"There is a very significant risk that a consumer can hire ahome inspector who does not have adequate education, training orexperience to do the job properly," says Graham Clarke, a member ofthe panel and the president of theCanadian Association of Home andProperty Inspectors.

"In the absence of any regulation, anybody can sound like theyare eminently qualified to do the job, and they very often aren't."

Currently, the only provinces that regulate home inspectors areBritish Columbia and Alberta, although both are contemplatingchanges to their regimes.

The B.C. government says it plans to introduce a more rigorouslicensing system for inspectors in 2017, as well as implementing astandard of practice that all inspections must adhere to.

Under the current regime, home inspectors can obtain a license bybecoming accredited through one of several industry associations,and the educational standards they must meet to obtain thataccreditation can vary from one association to the next.

"The certification requirements are pretty wide and variable,"says Claude Lawrenson, president and chair of the National HomeInspector Certification Council.

The inspection itself can also vary from what aspects of thehome are included to what methods the inspector uses to examinethem.

Last month the CSA Group, a Canadian not-for-profit standardsorganization, published Canada's first national standard on how homeinspections should be conducted.

Ontario, Alberta and B.C. all helped fund the creation of thestandard. The three provinces say they are currently in the processof reviewing the document and deciding whether or not to incorporateit into their regulations.