Is a Home Inspection Required in Oregon?
No. Oregon regulates who may inspect and to what standard, and never requires you to have one. Several other things around the sale are required, which is where the confusion starts.
No. No Oregon statute or rule requires a buyer to obtain a home inspection. Oregon regulates the inspector instead, through CCB certification and a mandatory standard of practice in OAR chapter 812 division 8. A lender or insurer may require one as a condition of their own product.
Not required, and not the same as unregulated
No Oregon statute or rule obliges a buyer to obtain a home inspection. It is optional in every residential transaction.
What Oregon regulates is the person performing one. Certification runs through the CCB, and the standard of practice is adopted law in OAR chapter 812 division 8.
A lender or an insurer may require an inspection as a condition of their product. That is a contract term, not state law.
What is required
Most residential sellers must deliver a property disclosure statement. Permits and their inspections are required for qualifying work.
Neither is a home inspection, and neither is performed on your behalf. A permit final answers a code question for the jurisdiction.
Optional does not mean low stakes
The findings that most often derail an Oregon transaction sit outside the general inspection entirely. Underground heating oil tanks, sewer laterals and radon are all excluded.
Skipping the general inspection does not shrink that list. It just removes the document that would have told you to go looking.
Waiving it in a competitive offer
Buyers waive inspections to win offers, and that is a risk decision rather than a legal one.
Waiving the contingency and waiving the inspection are different choices. You can inspect for information while giving up the right to renegotiate on it.
Asked and answered
No. Sellers must deliver a property disclosure statement, which is a disclosure of what they know rather than an inspection.
Lenders require an appraisal. Some loan products add condition requirements, but that comes from the lender rather than Oregon law.
Yes. Home inspectors are certified through the CCB and must work to the standard of practice in OAR chapter 812 division 8.