Not in the way most states mean it. North Dakota requires anyone performing home inspections for compensation on residential buildings of up to four units to register with the Secretary of State under Century Code chapter 43-54, but it does not license them: there is no inspector board, no state examination, no education requirement and no continuing education. What registration does force is two things a buyer can genuinely use - a passing examination from one of four approved organisations, and errors-and-omissions coverage of at least $100,000 held continuously. Those two facts, not a licence, are what there is to check.
Official sources
Links below go to the state’s own systems. This site holds no records and cannot look anything up for you.
- Verify a credential: Registered Home Inspectors in North Dakota (Secretary of State PDF list) North Dakota publishes a dated PDF roster rather than a searchable database. The file is regenerated with a current as-of date, so a reader checks a name against the most recent version rather than querying a live system.
- Regulator: North Dakota Secretary of State
- Governing law: North Dakota Century Code Chapter 43-54 (Home Inspectors)
Registration and licensure are not the same thing
North Dakota's home inspector requirement sits in Century Code chapter 43-54 and is administered by the Secretary of State - the office that handles business filings - rather than by an occupational board. There is no Home Inspectors Board, no state-written examination, no pre-registration education requirement and no continuing education obligation, and the state has adopted no administrative rules under the chapter.
That is a real distinction, not a semantic one. A licensing board sets standards, examines candidates against them, and disciplines licensees. A registration function records that a person has filed the required proofs. The chapter does impose substantive conditions - an approved examination and continuous insurance - but it enforces them at filing rather than through an ongoing oversight body.
None of this implies North Dakota inspectors are unqualified. Every registrant has passed a recognised examination and carries errors-and-omissions cover. What it means is that the state is not the body vouching for their competence, so the useful questions point at the credential behind the registration rather than at the registration itself.
The roster is a dated PDF, not a live database
Most states run a searchable licence lookup that answers in real time. North Dakota publishes a document instead: a roster of registered home inspectors, regenerated with a current as-of date.
Check the date on the file before you rely on it. A name that is absent may be a recent registrant who post-dates the file; a name that is present may have lapsed since it was generated. Neither ambiguity exists in a live query system, and both are easy to miss because a PDF looks equally authoritative whatever its age.
The practical approach is to treat the roster as strong evidence rather than proof, and to pair it with a direct request to the inspector for their registration confirmation and current insurance certificate.
The examination is the whole of the entry test
North Dakota imposes no classroom hours, no field training hours and no supervised inspection count. The credential turns entirely on the examination requirement: proof of passing an examination on home inspection from one of four approved organisations - the American Society of Home Inspectors, the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, the Examination Board of Professional Home Inspectors, or the International Code Council.
This makes the examination the single most informative thing about a North Dakota registrant, and it is worth asking which one they passed. The four are not interchangeable in emphasis: three are home inspection credentials from the inspection trade and its examination body, while the fourth comes from the code and building-standards world. An inspector's answer tells you something about the tradition they were trained in, which a state licence number in another state would not.
Because no education hours sit behind the examination, how a registrant prepared for it is their own affair; nothing in North Dakota law requires formal training.
One hundred thousand dollars of errors and omissions, maintained continuously
The one financial condition the chapter imposes is proof of current errors-and-omissions coverage of $100,000 or more, and the obligation is to maintain it continuously rather than to show it once.
Errors-and-omissions coverage is the policy that responds to the professional mistake - the defect that was missed, or described in a way that misled. It is the coverage most relevant to a buyer's actual complaint about an inspection, and it is notable that a state imposing no education requirement at all still insists on it, and insists that it not lapse.
The word continuously is the operative one. A certificate dated at registration is not evidence that cover is in force today. Asking for a current certificate before the inspection is ordinary practice and, in a state without a live lookup, it is the most reliable check available.
No state standards of practice, so ask which ones apply
Chapter 43-54 defines a home inspection as a nonintrusive, visual examination, and it expressly excludes concealed and inaccessible items. Beyond that definitional boundary, North Dakota adopts no standards-of-practice document at all.
In practice, inspectors follow the standards of whichever association credentialed them. That is a workable arrangement - the major association standards are detailed, public and broadly similar - but it puts a question on the buyer that residents of most states never have to ask: whose standards is this inspection performed to?
Ask it, and ask for the document. It defines what the inspector will examine, what they will not, and what they are entitled to exclude. In a state with a code-based standard in the administrative code, that answer is fixed for everyone. Here it depends on the inspector, and it should be settled in the inspection agreement before the work is booked rather than argued about afterwards.
Who must register, and who is exempt
The requirement reaches anyone performing home inspections for compensation on residential buildings of up to four units. Three groups are exempt: code enforcement officials, licensed professionals acting within their own scope of practice, and insurance adjusters.
The exemptions are sensible once you see the logic. A building official inspecting to a code, an engineer or architect working inside their own licensed scope, and an adjuster assessing a loss are all doing something other than a consumer home inspection, and each is already accountable somewhere else. Violating the chapter is a class B misdemeanour, so registration is a legal obligation with a criminal sanction behind it rather than a voluntary trade badge.
The four-unit ceiling is also worth noting. A larger residential building falls outside the chapter's scope, so an inspection of one is not covered by the registration requirement at all.
Renewal on 30 June, and the cancellation that arrives silently
Registration renews annually, due 30 June. Renewal notices are mailed in mid-May, and an unrenewed registration is cancelled automatically without further notice.
Automatic cancellation without notice means a name can disappear from the roll without any finding, complaint or disciplinary action against the inspector. A gap in the registration list is not evidence of misconduct - it is far more often evidence of a missed deadline. Equally, it means a registration you verified in the spring may not be in force in July.
Combined with the PDF roster, this is the strongest argument for checking close to the date of the inspection rather than at the start of a house search. The registration, the examination credential and the current insurance certificate are the three things worth having in hand, and only the first is even partially answered by the published list.
None of this makes registration meaningless. It forces a recognised examination and continuous insurance on everyone who inspects for compensation, and it puts a criminal penalty behind non-compliance. It simply is not a licence, and treating it as one - in either direction - misreads what North Dakota has done.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are home inspectors licensed in North Dakota?
No. They are registered with the Secretary of State under Century Code chapter 43-54, which is a different mechanism. There is no inspector board, no state examination, no education requirement and no continuing education, and the state has adopted no administrative rules under the chapter. Registration does require a passing examination from an approved organisation and continuous errors-and-omissions coverage.
How do I check whether a North Dakota home inspector is registered?
The Secretary of State publishes a roster of registered home inspectors as a dated document rather than running a live searchable database. Check the as-of date on the file, because a recent registrant may post-date it and a listed registrant may have lapsed since. Pair the roster with a direct request to the inspector for their registration confirmation and a current insurance certificate.
What standards does a North Dakota home inspector follow?
Whichever standards their credentialing association sets. Chapter 43-54 defines a home inspection as a nonintrusive, visual examination and expressly excludes concealed or inaccessible items, but the state adopts no full standards-of-practice document. That makes it worth asking, before booking, whose standards the inspection will be performed to and getting a copy of them.
Does North Dakota require continuing education for home inspectors?
No. There is no continuing education requirement, no pre-registration education requirement and no supervised-inspection count. The substantive conditions are the approved examination and errors-and-omissions coverage of $100,000 or more maintained continuously. Renewal is annual, due 30 June, and lapsed registrations are cancelled automatically without further notice.
Who is exempt from registering as a home inspector in North Dakota?
Code enforcement officials, licensed professionals acting within their own scope of practice, and insurance adjusters. The requirement otherwise applies to anyone performing home inspections for compensation on residential buildings of up to four units, and violating the chapter is a class B misdemeanour. Buildings above four units fall outside the chapter's scope entirely.