A message from Jeff Gorum, CMI, Chairman of the New Mexico Home Inspector Licensing Board on 1/15/20

In 2019, after many years of debate and efforts to get Home Inspector Licensing in place in New Mexico, the Legislature passed a Home Inspector Licensing Bill and it was subsequently signed into law by the Governor in the Spring of 2019. As most people following the legislation are aware, the effective date of the law was January 1, 2020, and that date has now come and gone.

So where is New Mexico with respect to Home Inspector Licensing? There are some in the home inspection industry and related services industries who believe that there are now licensed home inspectors in New Mexico and that these are the only inspectors eligible to be doing home inspections in New Mexico today. This is not true. The law required the creation of a Home Inspector Licensing Board and charged the board with drafting and putting into New Mexico Administrative Code all of the rules and regulations in great detail that are required in order to carry out the intent of the law. This process takes time. Rules must be developed and drafted with the input of constituent parties to the law, then go through the public comment and hearing process and finally, after a period of time prescribed by law, can become the rules and regulations of the board, and therefore can be applied to License applicants and License holders. The Home Inspector Licensing Board organized and became a legal public body on January 6, 2020. The board immediately appointed two members to a rules committee and has begun taking applications from constituent individuals in the field to complete the committee of 5-7 members. This committee will meet following the next Home Inspector Licensing Board meeting on February 4.

Although neither I nor the Board may provide individuals with legal advice, the plain language of the Home Inspector Licensing Act shows that many of its provisions are already in effect, not requiring implementation through rules and regulations. These include, but are not necessarily limited to; the requirement that a pre-inspection agreement is signed prior to every inspection and the use of statements in all home inspection reports attesting to the fact that the inspection is not a code inspection. These elements essentially took effect January 1, but even at that I certainly recognize that it will be a learning experience for inspectors. At its next meeting, the Board will discuss these issues so as to provide the public with greater clarity as to the provisions in the statute that are already in effect.

The Board takes very seriously its responsibility to get rules and regulations in place and to begin licensing of home inspectors. We will be making every effort to draft and propose rules and regulations as quickly as possible while still allowing for appropriate industry and public input regarding the regulations. It is hoped at this point that the process will take in the neighborhood of 5-7 months at which time we will begin taking applications and issuing licenses. At that point, a statewide database of licensees will be publicly available and available to REALTORS® and others in related industries to confirm licensure for any individual. In the meantime, the Home Inspector Licensing Board has a website which will contain the most recently available information about Home Inspector licensing as it becomes available. The website is https://www.rld.state.nm.us/boards/home-inspectors-overview.aspx.