Let’s start with bonding, we get this question from time to time. Everyone has heard of bonding but most don’t actually know what the purpose of it is. It doesn’t really apply to or make much sense for the inspection industry. There are three types of bonds that are designed for the construction industry to ensure construction work gets done. There are Bid Bonds, Performance Bonds and Payment bonds. These are very common in the construction industry, where a bond is purchased by a general contractor to either ensure that the work will be performed or the vendors will be paid. Knowing this helps understand why it doesn’t make a lot of sense in the inspection industry.
That being said, there are some small municipalities that require inspectors to get a surety bond, and in those areas, we, of course, comply. The bond is just protection against the inspector not actually doing the inspection. So, they are rather silly and don’t really serve any purpose except to cost the inspector and therefore the consumer extra money.
About 38 states in the United States requires some sort of home inspector licensing in order to perform home inspections in that state. All of our inspectors get this state licensing but this is just the first step in running a successful Inspections Over Coffee franchise. It’s very much like a the agent getting their real estate license which allows them to sell real estate in their state, but does not do a lot to prepare them to run a successful real estate practice. In the states that do not require licensing, our Inspections Over Coffee franchisees still meet the requirements of other states that do require licensing even though they don’t have a state license, per se, to show for it, along with all of the corporate training.
Like most service businesses, all of our franchises maintain general liability insurance and errors and omissions insurance. If you aren’t familiar, general liability insurance covers things that might happen while an inspector is on-site, like falling through the ceiling drywall or causing a plumbing leak. Errors and omissions insurance covers things like making a mistake or having an oversight while doing a home inspection, specifically, missing an item or misrepresenting an item in the inspection report.
A record of all of the franchise location insurance policies is held at IOC franchising, LLC and will is easily made available, upon request.