Home & Municipal InspectionS: Differences & Similarities

Home Inspections and Municipal Inspections share much of the same construction knowledge, but in practice, they are different.

The principle difference between the two inspection types this:  The traditional home inspection (performed during a real estate transaction) provides the findings of the visual condition of the existing structure’s components based on stated standards of practice; the municipal inspection contends with construction components at time of construction where the judgement standards are codes.  

Looking at an electric panel of a 50-year-old house as a home inspector and figuring out the condition is much different than looking at a brand-new electrical panel for code compliance.  The panel in most new homes are similar (municipal inspections), but the panel in homes of varying ages will differ significantly in materials and methods (home inspections).  The quality of the people performing work in the panel over 50 years is unknown, but mostly known in new construction. 

Following the example above, the home inspector may direct the client to speak with an electrician about concerns identified or recommend repairs when confident in the findings; the municipal inspector is the person passing judgement on the new work completed.  The scope of possibilities on how things were done “back-in-the-day" should be left to the professional who has been trained in that trade, while how things should be done today, is a much easier a question to resolve. 

Commercial municipal inspections are partially condition based, but the plan review is where the rubber hits the road for municipal commercial permits.  An important part of the inspection is the plan review process.  This is where a review is performed deciding how the space is planned to be used, figuring out fire separation requirements, verifying the quantity of occupants allowed and occupant egress paths out of the structure.  Once this is worked through prior to permit issuance, field verification is intuitive.  This review process with a condition evaluation makes up the municipal commercial inspection. There are businesses that perform commercial private real estate transaction inspections, but most commercial evaluations during a real estate transaction are completed by architects and engineers that oversee a multi-specialty inspection process.  Specialty contractors are hired to evaluate each major building component and derive a report of the condition of these parts which is then aggregated by the professional heading up the inspection. 

The home inspection industry follows Standards of Practice that are derived by independent organizations and/or prescribed by state laws.  The Municipal Industry is driven by codes.  International Code Council (ICC) has derived a series of building codes that are widely used.  National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) has derived electrical codes and a number of other standards.  The commercial side of condition evaluations are driven by American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM International) or InterNACHI’s ComSOP.  Each of these are each very different and look to identify different things.  This is a significant part of the distinct difference between the types of inspections that inspectors are performing.

Experience is the key to being successful in either industry.  The home inspector gains knowledge based how many defective and acceptable conditions they have identified given a component of the structure.  The municipal inspector must understand the codes and understand not only how they apply in theory during the plan review process, but how they apply in practice in the field. 

The similarity for both these types of inspections is construction knowledge.  The differences are how that knowledge is applied on the job.  It is clear they are two definitively different types of inspector. 
 
About the author: 
Brian Fragassi performed traditional real estate home inspections for 10 years in Illinois & Wisconsin before transitioning to municipal inspections in 2009 in Illinois.