Practitioners
How to become a home inspector in Oregon
How to become a home inspector in Oregon: the eligibility points, the exam, the fees, and the business licence step that most guides leave out.
Two steps, not one
Certification as an Oregon Certified Home Inspector qualifies the individual. Working for a fee additionally requires that you own, or are employed by, a business holding an active CCB contractor licence. The CCB runs both, which is exactly why they get conflated.
The step that gets left out
Training providers rank for this query and their content stops at certification, because the business licence belongs to the step they do not sell. Any total cost of entry that omits the CCB licence renewal is understating it.
Continuing education has an unusual route
Credit is available for accompanying a licensed plumbing, electrical or HVAC contractor on a job, capped across the renewal period. Separately, a certified inspector who hosts a ride-along for an applicant earns credit for it, while the applicant earns eligibility points. The same activity counts three different ways under three different rules.
Verified fields
The two step
Certification and licensure are separate, cumulative steps, both at the CCB. ORS 701.445(1) states it in one sentence: an individual may not undertake, offer to undertake or submit a bid to do work as a home inspector unless the individual is certified by the Board AND is an owner of, or employed by, a business that is licensed by the board.
Who must be certified
- trigger
- Inspecting TWO OR MORE of ten categories, for a fee, with a written report.
- reach
- The duty attaches to bidding and offering, not only performing.
Eligibility points
- minimum
- 20
- rule last amended
- CCB 1-2015, effective 2015-10-01
- drafting artifact
- OAR 812-008-0040(3)(d) cross-references approved providers under 812-008-0074(2), but providers are actually approved under 812-008-0074(3).
Exam
- name
- National Home Inspector Examination
- administrator
- PSI, at seven Oregon locations
- fee
- $225
- format
- 200 multiple-choice questions, four hours
- rule
- OAR 812-008-0050 names the exam and its sponsor (EBPHI) but states NO passing score. Do not publish a passing score.
- grandfathering
- Exams passed before 2015-10-01 remain usable. Inspectors certified before 2015-10-01 are exempt from the exam requirement.
Continuing education
- hours
- 30
- unit
- continuing education units (CEUs)
- cycle
- Each two-year renewal
- corroboration
- OCHI Certification Application p.2, Oregon Secretary of State License Directory entry 631
- exemption from general ce
- Home inspector certificate holders are EXEMPT from the regular CCB residential continuing education requirements.
- military waiver
- CE is waived entirely if the inspector served on active duty in the US armed forces during the two-year period. OAR 812-008-0070(2).
Ride along distinction
- finding
- The single CCB ride-along form has TWO separate boxes for two entirely different things, and they are routinely blurred.
- consequence
- At most 3 of the 30 CEUs can come from trade-contractor ride-alongs. Hosting CEUs appear uncapped.
- form
- https://www.oregon.gov/ccb/Documents/OCHI%20CE%20Ride-Along.pdf
Standards of practice
- location
- OAR chapter 812, Division 8
- range
- 812-008-0200 through 812-008-0214
- index url
- https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/displayDivisionRules.action?selectedDivision=3593
- ccb full text pdf
- https://www.oregon.gov/ccb/Documents/Home%20Inspection%20Standards.pdf
- scope framing
- OAR 812-008-0203: inspections undertaken in accordance with division 8 are visual and are not technically exhaustive.
Complaint deadline
- correction
- NOT ORS 701.355. That section was renumbered to ORS 701.450 in 2015 and is a 12-month repair-work conflict-of-interest bar.
- operative citation
- ORS 701.143
- period
- One year
- clock starts
- Delivery of the initial written inspection report.
- no exceptions
- CCB's dispute booklet states there are no exceptions to the time limits.
- rule text verbatim
- For the purpose of this rule, a home inspection shall be deemed completed when the initial written inspection report is delivered.
Ochi vs oic
- finding
- Two Oregon agencies each certify something called an inspector. Only CCB's covers home inspectors.
Energy audit exemption
- rule
- Persons performing energy audits are EXPRESSLY EXEMPT from home inspector certification.
- rule text verbatim
- A home inspection does not include energy audit, forensic evaluation or home performance testing.
- source correction
- This fact was cited to OAR 812-008-0030. The operative wording is in OAR 812-008-0205, the definitions rule. Re-pointed 2026-08-07.
Oar verification status
- status
- RESOLVED 2026-08-07 via Scraper-HIB.
- method
- Zyte browserHtml defeated the F5 JavaScript interstitial that blocked every direct request.
- rules confirmed
- 812-008-0030, 812-008-0040, 812-008-0050, 812-008-0201, 812-008-0202, 918-480-0010
- division listing
- OAR chapter 812 division 8 lists 31 rules; 812-008-0200 through 0205 all exist.
Contracts and reports rule
- rule
- OAR 812-008-0202 Contracts and Reports
- completion trigger verbatim
- For the purpose of this rule, a home inspection shall be deemed completed when the initial written inspection report is delivered.
- basis verbatim
- Home inspections undertaken according to Division 8 shall be based solely on the property conditions, as observed at the time of the home inspection.
Oar authority line is stale
- finding
- OAR 812-008-0203 still lists its statutory authority as ORS 670.310, 701.235, 701.350 and 701.355, and implements 701.350 and 701.355.