Beattyville to Lexington · Inspections
Who can inspect a Kentucky house without a home inspector license?
Nine categories of people. KRS 198B.702 exempts them from Kentucky home inspector licensing — but only while each is acting inside their own license.
That second clause is the whole point, and it is the clause buyers miss. KRS 198B.702 was amended effective July 15, 2026 by 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 172, sec. 15. It opens by saying the home inspector statutes “shall apply to an individual who conducts home inspections for compensation, but shall not apply to the following” — and then it lists nine exemptions, almost every one of them qualified by the words “acting within the scope of the individual’s license.”
So when an electrician looks at your panel, or an HVAC contractor looks at your furnace, that is a licensed person doing licensed work and no home inspector license is needed. The exemption does not convert any of them into a home inspector for the rest of the house.
What are the nine exemptions in KRS 198B.702?
| Subsection | Who is exempt |
|---|---|
| (1) | A code enforcement official for the state or a political subdivision; a representative of a state or local housing agency, or someone acting under HUD authority — within the scope of employment |
| (2) | Licensed architect (KRS Ch. 323), professional engineer (Ch. 322), plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber (Ch. 318), electrician, master electrician or electrical contractor (Ch. 227A), LP gas dealer (Ch. 234), master/journeyman/apprentice HVAC (Ch. 198B), and fire protection sprinkler contractor, system certificate holder or certified sprinkler inspector (Ch. 198B) |
| (3) | A real estate broker, broker-salesperson or salesperson licensed under KRS Chapter 324, acting within the scope of the license |
| (4) | A real property appraiser licensed under KRS Chapter 324A |
| (5) | An insurance adjuster licensed under KRS Chapter 304 |
| (6) | A holder of a permit, certificate or license to use and apply pesticides, or to make diagnostic inspections and reports for wood-destroying pests and fungi under KRS Chapter 217B |
| (7) | Someone licensed by a political subdivision as a tradesperson or home builder |
| (8) | A manufactured home retailer, certified retailer or certified installer under KRS 227.550 to 227.660 |
| (9) | A person not subject to state licensure who is providing estimates for remodeling or repair to a residential dwelling |
Eight of the nine exemptions end with the same five words: within the scope of the individual’s license. The exemption is as wide as that license and no wider.
Why subsection (3) matters to you and to me
Subsection (3) exempts a real estate licensee acting within the scope of a KRS Chapter 324 license. Read it the honest way: it means I do not need a home inspector license to do my job, and it also means my job is not inspecting your house. When I point out a stain on a ceiling or a soft spot on a deck board, I am doing what a listing or buyer’s agent does. I am not producing a home inspection, and the statute does not let me produce one by walking around with a flashlight.
In my practice the practical use of this list is to know who to send, and to resist the temptation to collapse two reports into one. A buyer who gets a licensed electrician to look at an aluminum-wired panel has a real answer about the panel from a person the statute recognizes for that purpose. That same buyer has nothing about the roof, the grading, or the crawlspace. The exemption list is a map of specialists, not a menu of substitutes for a general inspection.
Subsection (9) and the estimate trap
Subsection (9) exempts “a person not subject to licensure by the Commonwealth who is engaged in providing estimates for remodeling or repair to a residential dwelling.” That is how a contractor can walk your house and write a number without a home inspector license. It is also the sentence that most often gets stretched in practice, which is why we treated it separately in a repair estimate is not a home inspection. An estimate answers “what would it cost to fix this.” An inspection answers “what is wrong with this house.” The statute exempts the first; it does not rename it as the second.
What this does not do
It does not make any of these people interchangeable with a licensed home inspector, and it does not say what any of them may report. A separate provision keeps Kentucky home inspectors out of code-compliance opinions, which we covered in what a Kentucky home inspector may not tell you about code; and the line between a home inspector and a licensed professional engineer — subsection (2)(b) above — is its own question, covered in structural engineer versus home inspector. If you are buying in the Gorge region, the same list applies county by county, including on the older stock around homes for sale in Beattyville.
I am your agent, not your lawyer and not your inspector. Whether a particular person’s license covers a particular opinion is a question for that person’s licensing board, and the statute text above is the starting point rather than the answer. Knowing that the exemption is scope-bound — and that there are exactly nine of them, last amended July 15, 2026 — is the part that belongs in a buyer’s file.
Does a licensed contractor’s walkthrough replace a home inspection?
No. KRS 198B.702(2) and (7) exempt licensed trades and locally licensed tradespeople or home builders only while acting within the scope of their own license. A plumber’s exemption covers plumbing work; it does not produce a whole-house inspection report.
Is a termite letter a home inspection under Kentucky law?
It is treated as its own credential. KRS 198B.702(6)(b) exempts a holder of a permit, certificate or license to make diagnostic inspections and reports for wood-destroying pests and fungi under KRS Chapter 217B, acting within the scope of that certificate or license. Separate credential, separate question.
Does the exemption list apply to an unpaid inspection?
The statute’s opening sentence applies the home inspector provisions to “an individual who conducts home inspections for compensation.” The nine exemptions then carve people out of that. Whether a given arrangement is compensated is a factual question; raise it with counsel rather than assuming.
Last updated October 26, 2026.
By Marcos Gil, REALTOR® — Keller Williams Commonwealth · KY Real Estate License No. 296259 · Call or text (859) 310-1209.
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