Who Pays for the Home Inspection?
Whoever pays is the only person who may rely on the report. In Oregon that is a rule, not a convention, and it is the real reason the answer matters.
The buyer normally pays, at the time of service. Oregon assigns the cost to nobody, so a purchase agreement can allocate it differently. What Oregon does fix is reliance: every report must state that only the person who purchased the inspection services may rely on it.
Custom says the buyer, the contract decides
The buyer normally pays, and pays at the time of service rather than at closing. No Oregon rule assigns the cost.
A purchase agreement can move it. A seller credit covering the inspection is a negotiated term like any other.
Payment and reliance travel together
Oregon requires every contract and every report to carry a reliance notice. It sits on the first page, in bold capitals, at 12pt or larger.
The notice states that no person other than the purchaser of the inspection services may rely on any representation made in the report.
A buyer reading the seller pre-listing report is explicitly outside that protection. The document can be accurate and still give you nothing to stand on.
What that is worth in practice
Reliance and the right to complain to the CCB both attach to the purchaser. The complaint window is one year from delivery of the report under ORS 701.143.
Commissioning your own inspection is what buys both. That is the strongest practical argument against relying on a report somebody else ordered.
The one case for reading the seller report anyway
It tells you what the seller already knows, which matters for the disclosure statement they are separately required to give you.
Use it as intelligence, not as protection. Order your own for the protection.
Asked and answered
Yes, by agreement. Reliance follows the purchaser of the services, so make sure the contract and report name the buyer as the purchaser.
You can read it. You cannot rely on it. The mandatory notice limits reliance to whoever purchased the inspection.
Usually at the time of service rather than at closing, because the inspector is not a party to the transaction.