Home Inspector Insurance in Canada

A home inspection is a visual opinion delivered in a few hours, and the client relies on it to make the largest purchase of their life. When the buyer finds a wet basement, a failing roof or knob-and-tube wiring after closing, the inspection report is the first document they reread. The repair bill becomes a demand letter, and the demand letter names you.

Most of these claims are about financial loss, not injury. That puts them on your professional liability (E&O) policy, not your general liability. Inspectors also face the physical side of the job: ladders, roofs, attics and crawlspaces, where a fall or a damaged ceiling becomes a general liability claim. Home inspection sits inside the wider business and professional services sector, but its claims look more like a contractor's in one respect: they are tied to a physical building.

A typical program has four or five parts. E&O carries most of the risk. The others fill the gaps that E&O excludes.

Inspectors who also offer WETT, radon, mould or septic services should list each one. Specialty services are often rated or excluded separately, and an unlisted service can fall outside the E&O wording.

The scenarios below are hypothetical, but they reflect the patterns underwriters ask about on every home inspector application.

Our post on CGL vs. professional liability explains why the same visit can produce claims under two different policies.

Whether you need a licence, and how much insurance it demands, depends on where you inspect. The rules below come from the statute, regulation or regulator page listed in our sources.

A statutory minimum is a floor. A single basement or foundation claim with defence costs can use up a $1 million limit that also has to cover every other claim that year, so many inspectors carry more.

Every inspector should use a signed pre-inspection agreement that defines the scope, lists what is excluded (inaccessible areas, concealed systems, code compliance, environmental testing) and records that the client read it before the inspection. It is the single best piece of evidence in a defence. But what it can do depends on the province.

Home inspectors work alone, at height and in confined spaces, in buildings they have never seen before. That creates two separate exposures.

Injury to others and damage to the property sit on your CGL. A foot through a ceiling, a broken roof tile, a tripped breaker that spoils a freezer or a ladder that falls on a car are all routine CGL claims. Confirm the policy has no exclusion for roof work, since some contractor wordings restrict it.

Injury to you is different. CGL never covers the insured's own injury. If you have employees, workers' compensation rules in your province apply. Sole proprietors are often not covered automatically, so check your provincial board's rules on optional coverage, and consider personal disability insurance arranged outside the commercial program. Drones used for roof inspections raise their own liability and aviation rules, and need to be declared to the insurer.

Much of a home inspector's work comes through real estate agents and brokerages. Some ask for proof of insurance before recommending you, and commercial clients often require a certificate of insurance before you set foot on site.

Home inspector E&O is usually written on a claims-made basis. The policy in force when the claim is first made pays, not the policy in force on the day you inspected. A buyer may discover a defect years after the report, so three settings matter more than the premium.

Our professional liability guide explains retroactive dates, run-off and defence costs in detail.

E&O premiums are driven by the number of inspections a year, gross revenue, the types of property (single family, multi-unit, commercial), the services offered, years in business, training and designations, and prior claims. Specialty services such as mould or radon testing, and commercial inspections, move the rate. So do your contract and reporting practices: a signed pre-inspection agreement, a standard-of-practice report and photo documentation all count with underwriters.

The limit and deductible matter too. Each step up in limit adds premium, so ask for a higher limit to be priced alongside the minimum and compare. CGL for an inspector is usually modest because the work is low-hazard, but roof access and drone use are rated. We compare quotes from the insurers on our panel and show you wording differences, such as mould exclusions, side by side.