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What a home inspection costs
The quote in front of you came from one company, with nothing to say about how the number was built. Two things set it: the size and type of the home, and everything the inspector adds on top for age, location and travel.
The range most buyers pay
CMHC puts a number on it. "A home inspection, which costs around $500, is a report on the condition of your home," is how it sets out the up-front cost in its buyer guidance.
CMHC gives you a single figure to drop into a budget that already has a dozen lines on it. The cost of a home inspection is a rounding error next to the purchase, which is the argument for not shopping on price alone.
One thing before you start comparing quotes. Of the three published fee schedules in this guide, two quote before tax. Check which sales tax applies before you compare totals.
What moves the price up
Three inspection companies publish their whole fee schedules.
| Inspection company | Condo or apartment | Detached house | Charges on top |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clearview Home Inspections, Toronto | $525 plus HST, up to 1,000 sq ft | $600 plus HST, under 2,500 sq ft | $50 for homes built in 1980 or earlier, $50 in central Toronto or East York, and a $25 fuel surcharge |
| ABC Home Inspections, Metro Vancouver | $345, 601 to 1,500 sq ft | $460 up to 2,000 sq ft, $520 from 2,001 to 3,000 sq ft | $90 for an extra suite; taxes aren't shown on the list |
| Acetech Home Inspections, Halifax | $280 plus HST, under 1,000 sq ft | $495 plus HST, under 2,000 sq ft | Sewer scope $300, radon screening $250, WETT inspection $300, septic inspection $450, all plus HST |
Each row is one company's own published list, there to show how a price gets built rather than what your inspector will charge.
The shape repeats across all three. Price steps up with square footage, and each list prices a condo inspection below a detached house inspection. After that it's surcharges. Clearview adds $50 for a home built in 1980 or earlier, another $50 in central Toronto or East York, and a $25 fuel surcharge on everything it does. ABC adds $90 for an extra suite. Thermal imaging is a package upgrade at Clearview, $50 more on a condo and $75 more on a house under 2,500 square feet.
So when you email for a quote, give them the square footage, the year the house was built, and whether there's a suite in it. A home inspector price built on those three facts is the one that survives inspection day.
What the fee covers, and what costs extra
A standard home inspection is a look, not a teardown. Your contract should say whether the inspector will use any invasive procedure. The edges of that look are where buyers get surprised six months later, so it pays to know where they sit before you book.
The systems a standard inspection looks at
Alberta's rules spell this out better than anyone's marketing does. Unless your contract says otherwise, the report has to address roofing, flashings and the chimney, the structure, electrical, heating, heat pumps and cooling, insulation, plumbing and the interior. The exterior counts too, including lot grading, walkways, driveways, retaining walls, patios and decks.
That's the list. The method is the limit. Alberta defines a home inspection as "an opinion as to the condition of a dwelling based primarily on a non-invasive examination of readily accessible features and components of the dwelling." Non-invasive is the default, but the contract can specify invasive procedures. Readily accessible is doing a lot of quiet work in that definition.
Take the roof. A steep or frosted roof may be unsafe to walk. In BC the report has to specify what the inspection didn't cover, which is worth asking for by name in every province that hasn't got it. Ask when you book whether the roof will be walked.
Add-ons you'll pay for separately
The Halifax list is the most itemized of the three, so use it for the shape of the extras: sewer scope $300, radon screening $250, a WETT inspection $300, a septic inspection $450, and mould air sampling from $350, all plus HST.
Radon is the one buyers get wrong. Health Canada "recommends that measurements occur over a time period no less than 91 days" and says short-term measurements "are not appropriate for informing mitigation decisions." A screening squeezed into a five-day conditional period is a first look and nothing more, which is why a radon test has to run 91 days.
Septic deserves its own appointment. The Nova Scotia Real Estate Commission says a septic inspection may be done by a licensed septic system installer, a licensed sewage hauler or a professional engineer. A septic system installer is one of the people it names.
A wood stove or fireplace also gets booked separately. Insurers often ask for that report. Here's what a WETT inspection covers.
Mould and asbestos are contract questions. In BC the contract has to state whether the inspector will inspect for each of them. In Alberta you initial a statement when they're left out. If the answer is no and you want to know anyway, that's the work mould inspection and air quality companies do. And how asbestos testing works covers the textured ceiling case.
What a condo inspection usually leaves out
All three published lists put a condo below a house. The scope may stop at the unit and leave out common property such as the roof, envelope, parkade and boiler room.
Alberta draws the same line in its licensing rules. A business whose only work is inspecting a condominium's common areas doesn't need a home inspection business licence at all. The province treats the unit and the shared building as two different jobs.
Quebec turns it into a conversation you get to have. Before a certified inspector signs a contract to inspect a unit in divided co-ownership, which is the ordinary condo setup, they have to explain what inspecting the common areas would get you. Where the cost is known, they have to give you that too. Then you decide.
Wherever you're buying, ask in writing whether any shared part of the building is included and what adding it would cost. Assume it isn't included until somebody writes down that it is.
Does your inspector need a licence? It depends on the province
Home inspection gets regulated province by province, and the answer changes when you cross a border. We read the law in four of them and got four different answers. One licenses the individual. One licenses the individual and the company. One is in a three-year transition. One passed a licensing act that nobody ever switched on.
| Province | Does the inspector need a licence? | Insurance the rules require | What the contract can't do | Where you check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | Yes, from Consumer Protection BC. Licensing has applied since March 31, 2009. | $1 million in errors and omissions coverage and $1 million in general liability coverage, including water ingress. | Leave out the garage or carport, cap the inspector's liability, or limit the time you have to make a claim. | Consumer Protection BC's licence check for individuals. The licence number has to appear on the inspector's ads and contracts. |
| Alberta | Yes. The inspection company and the individual inspector each need a licence, under rules in force since September 1, 2011. | Errors and omissions coverage of at least $1,000,000 per claim and $2,000,000 in total for all claims in a year. | Limit the liability of the company or the inspector, or limit the time for making a claim. It also has to be signed before the inspection starts. | Service Alberta's search for licensed businesses. The inspector has to show you both licences, or give you the details, if you ask. |
| Quebec | Not until October 1, 2027. The RBQ has issued certificates since October 1, 2024, and from October 1, 2027 nobody can do an inspection for a real estate transaction without one. | For a class 1 certificate, $1,000,000 each in general liability and errors and omissions coverage. | Once the inspector is certified, exclude their civil liability in whole or in part. | The RBQ's repertory of residential building inspectors, which lists every valid certificate. |
| Ontario | No. The Home Inspection Act, 2017 passed but has never been proclaimed in force. | The Act's insurance requirements are not in force. | The Act's contract rules are not in force. | There is no provincial register under the Act. Ask for proof of insurance and read the contract yourself. |
British Columbia and Alberta license the inspector
BC has licensed home inspectors since March 31, 2009, through Consumer Protection BC, and it wrote the reminder into the paperwork. Every BC contract has to carry this line: "Home inspectors operating in British Columbia are required to be licensed under the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act and are regulated under that Act." The licence number has to show up on business cards, ads and contracts too. A BC quote with no number on it is a fair thing to ask about.
Alberta licenses twice over. The inspection company needs a licence and so does each individual inspector, under rules in force since September 1, 2011. Ask, and the inspector has to produce both licences or give you enough detail to look them up yourself.
There's one exception almost nobody prints, and it matters if you're buying to rent out. Alberta's business licence isn't required for inspecting a dwelling that will be used as a rental property.
In either province, look the name up before inspection day, not after.
Quebec's certificate becomes mandatory in October 2027
Quebec is mid-transition, which makes it the trickiest province to shop in right now. The Régie du bâtiment du Québec has issued residential building inspector certificates since October 1, 2024. On October 1, 2027 the certificate becomes mandatory for anyone inspecting a property for a sale. Until then, an inspector can work without one.
That leaves two kinds of inspector on the Quebec market at once, and nobody is going to sort them out for you.
A certified inspector works to the BNQ 3009-500 standard. For a class 1 certificate they carry $1,000,000 each in general liability and errors and omissions coverage, the insurance that pays out when a professional gets something wrong. They also have to put a written service contract in front of you before the work starts.
So ask whether your inspector is certified, then check the RBQ's repertory, which lists every inspector holding a valid certificate. The repertory is published in French. Search the name anyway, because a name is a name in both languages.
Ontario passed a licensing law in 2017 that isn't in force
Ontario wrote the law and never turned it on. The Home Inspection Act, 2017 sits on Ontario's e-Laws site with the whole scheme drafted into it: a licence to hold, a contract to sign and a report to produce. At the top of the page, in capitals, is the line "THIS ACT IS NOT YET IN FORCE." It comes into force on a day to be named by proclamation, and that day hasn't arrived.
So nothing in the Act binds an Ontario inspector today. You'll find cost guides that say the opposite, some of them confident enough to give a date. Believe the statute's own page.
That leaves Ontario buyers with whatever they ask for. Proof of errors and omissions insurance. A written contract carrying the seven things three other provinces make mandatory. A sample report, so you know what the fee actually produces.
Those are the four provinces we read against the law itself. In the other six, ask your inspector which licence or certificate they hold and who issued it. Then take that answer back to whoever issued it. And wherever you're buying, hold the contract to the same standard, because a licence tells you who the inspector is and only the contract tells you what they owe you.
Read the contract before inspection day
The contract may land by email shortly before the appointment, or on a tablet at the property. It tells you what the inspector has agreed to do and what happens if they miss something. Ask for it the day you book, when saying no still costs you nothing.
The clause that caps what the inspector owes you
A liability cap is a sentence limiting what the inspector owes you if they miss something. InterNACHI's published agreement limits liability to 1.5 times the fee and offers a higher-fee opt-out. A sample published through the association caps liability at the fee and puts the clause on page three. Nobody standing in a driveway is going to find it there.
Two provinces ban it outright. A BC inspection contract must not "purport to limit the liability, or the amount of the liability, of the licensee" or "purport to limit the time for making a claim against the licensee." Alberta says the same about the company and the inspector both. And once a Quebec inspector holds a certificate, they can't write in a clause excluding their civil liability in whole or in part.
Consumer Protection BC adds one note worth keeping: BC's Limitation Act, with its basic two-year period, may still apply to a claim, and the courts weigh each one on its merits.
In Ontario, no home inspection contract rule under the 2017 Act is in force to stop the clause. Ask for it to come out before you sign. If the answer is no, hire somebody else.
We aren't lawyers. If a missed defect is already costing you real money, call one before any time limit runs out.
What a proper contract spells out
BC, Alberta and Quebec each write down what a home inspection contract has to contain. Put the three lists together and you get something that has nothing to do with where you happen to be buying. It's just what a fair contract looks like.
- The inspector's name, and their licence or certificate number if your province issues one
- The address being inspected, the inspection date and the date your report is due
- Every part of the house that's left out, named in writing
- Whether mould and asbestos are part of the job
- Whether anything will be opened up or moved, or whether it's a look-only inspection
- Whether a detached garage, shed or other outbuilding is included
- The name of the inspector's insurer
When someone else is paying the inspector
The inspector your listing agent recommended may well be excellent. The problem isn't the person. It's who signs the cheque.
Alberta treats payment to the inspection business from anyone other than the person the report is for as a conflict of interest. An inspector also has a conflict if someone other than the inspection business pays them. The province bars inspectors and inspection companies from giving you a cost estimate for any repair as a result of the inspection. That shuts the door on the inspector who finds the problem and then quotes the fix. BC's version is shorter and wider: a licensee "must not have a conflict of interest in relation to a home inspection that results in a material gain to the licensee." In Quebec, a certified inspector who spots an apparent conflict has to disclose it to you in writing and get your written consent before going ahead.
The report follows the money as well. BC and Alberta make the client's permission the normal route for sharing a report. Both allow disclosure when the law requires it or there is a serious health or safety risk. A seller's pre-listing report was prepared for the seller rather than for you. Read it if you're handed it. Then book your own.
Four things worth a second look 1. A clause limiting what the inspector owes you to the fee you paid. BC and Alberta don't allow it. Anywhere else, ask to have it removed before you sign. 2. An inspector who offers to quote the repairs. Alberta bars inspectors from estimating repair costs, so get your numbers from contractors. 3. A report paid for by someone other than you. Alberta treats third-party payment to the inspection business as a conflict of interest, so book and pay for the inspection yourself. 4. No licence number in BC or Alberta. Both provinces license inspectors, so look the number up before inspection day.
Book and pay for the inspection yourself, and tell your own real estate agent that's what you're doing. When you're ready to line up quotes, start with home inspectors near you, and ask each one for the contract before you choose.
Questions buyers ask about home inspections
Who pays for a home inspection, the buyer or the seller?
Usually the buyer. CMHC lists the home inspection fee among a buyer's up-front costs, next to legal fees and land transfer tax. A seller can order a pre-listing inspection, but it was prepared for the seller rather than for you.
Do I need a home inspection to buy a house?
It's your call, and it's usually a wise one. CMHC suggests making the inspection a condition of your Offer to Purchase, so you know what shape the house is in before you're committed to buying it. The Nova Scotia Real Estate Commission "strongly recommends" one, and points out that the province's standard Agreement of Purchase and Sale carries a home inspection clause.
Are home inspectors licensed in Ontario?
No. The Home Inspection Act, 2017 would license them, and Ontario's own e-Laws page marks it "NOT YET IN FORCE." Nothing has taken its place. Ask any Ontario inspector for proof of errors and omissions insurance, get the contract in writing, and read it for a liability cap before you sign.
Can a home inspector be held liable for missing something?
Yes, and in BC and Alberta the contract can't take that away. Neither province allows a clause capping the inspector's liability or limiting your time to claim, and both require insurance behind the promise. Outside those two provinces, find the cap before you sign and ask for it to come out.
Can a home inspector recommend a contractor or quote the repairs?
In Alberta, they can't quote. Inspectors and inspection companies there are barred from giving you a cost estimate for any repair as a result of the inspection. Third-party payment to the inspection business also counts as a conflict of interest. Get repair numbers from contractors, and treat an inspector's recommended repairer with the scrutiny you'd give any other name.
Does a home inspection include radon, mould or a WETT inspection?
Treat them as separate unless the contract says otherwise. In BC and Alberta, the contract has to say whether mould and asbestos are included. A proper radon test runs at least 91 days, not the length of your conditional period. A wood stove gets its own WETT inspection. Price each one separately, and ask which are included before you book.