(1) No person shall engage in the business of home or residential inspections unless that person has first secured a license from the Department.
(2) In order to secure a license, an applicant must:
(a) be at least eighteen (18) years of age;
(b) be certified by a nationally recognized professional organization which qualifies or certifies inspectors and is recognized by the Department;
(c) maintain commercial general liability insurance which names the City of Philadelphia as a certificate holder, in an amount in accordance with the Home Inspection Law, 68 Pa. C.S. § 7509, and Workers' Compensation insurance in the statutory amount; and
(d) pay a tri-annual license fee of three hundred dollars ($300).
(3) Professional Architect or Engineers, validly licensed to practice under the laws of this Commonwealth, and inspectors who perform inspections on behalf of their governmental agency employers shall be exempt from the provisions of this Chapter.
(4) Required Conduct.
(a) Inspections shall be made according to the standards of practice of the National Home Inspection Association by which the home inspector is certified.
(b) Inspections of residential properties shall either (i) include determinations of whether the property is served by a private sewer or by a private water main or (ii) the report of such an inspection shall include an explicit statement that no such determinations were made. 1164
(5) Restrictions.
(a) No person shall be licensed as a home inspector if that person has been convicted before a court of law of a crime of fraud, dishonesty, breach of trust or deceit.
(6) Penalties.
(a) In addition to the penalties established in Section 9-105, a license may be revoked for failure to comply with the provisions of this Section.
Notes
| 1164 | Added, Bill No. 150644 (approved October 27, 2015), effective January 1, 2016. |