These are non-profit governing bodies for the home inspection industry that decided long ago how inspectors should behave.
It includes a code of ethics, continuing education requirements, and the minimum number of items that must inspected in every home (about 430+ items).
So, just like building codes that dictate bare minimum requirements to build a safe house, InterNACHI® and ASHI™ dictate bare minimum requirements that a home inspector must abide by in order to be considered professional.
Also, since both organizations essentially perform the same function, a home inspector does not need to belong to more than one (although some states don’t even require a home inspector to belong to either).
So what does this mean to you as a home buyer?
You can find comfort in knowing you can expect a minimum level of consistency regardless of who you choose to work with. But with thousands of items that can break and leak in and around a home, you’ll always want more than that.
Here’s what ASHI™ and InterNACHI® are not:
1. They aren’t an insurance company to protect you if a home inspector misses something.
2. They aren’t a group that could punish a home inspector or kick them out of the home inspection industry for acting unethically or unprofessionally (there are exceptions that involve revoking their license, but this is not common).
