Building Inspector vs Home Inspector:
Who Checks What, and When
Both look at houses, and both are called inspectors. One works for the city and checks permitted work against code. The other works for you and reports on the house you’re about to buy.
A building inspector works for the city or county. A home inspector works for you. That one difference explains most of what each of them does, and doesn’t do.
The building inspector shows up when someone pulls a permit. They check that specific work, like a new deck, a reroof, or a panel upgrade, meets the building code at set stages. A home inspector shows up when someone is buying, selling, or maintaining a house. They look at the whole house as it stands today and write a report for the client.
Buyers get tripped up when they assume one covers the other. It doesn’t.
What a building inspector does
City and county building inspectors enforce the building code on permitted work. When a contractor or owner pulls a permit, the work gets inspected at stages. For a new house, those stages often include footings, framing, plumbing and electrical rough-in, insulation, and a final.
A building inspector:
- Works for the jurisdiction, not the buyer or seller
- Inspects only the work covered by the permit
- Checks that work against the adopted code
- Can fail work and require corrections before it moves forward
- Signs off the permit when the work passes the final inspection
They don’t come out to look at an existing house for a buyer. If nobody pulled a permit, no building inspector ever saw the work.
What a home inspector does
A home inspector looks at the visible, accessible parts of the whole house: roof, exterior, structure, attic, crawlspace, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling, and the interior. In Oregon and Washington, home inspectors are licensed by the state and work under each state’s Standards of Practice.
Trusted Home Inspections checks 120+ items on every home, with thermal imaging included at no additional charge. Russ is a Certified Master Inspector® and licensed in both Oregon and Washington.
The inspection is visual and non-invasive. It doesn’t open walls, it isn’t a code inspection, and it doesn’t certify that anything meets code. The report describes the condition of what was seen, flags safety concerns, and recommends specialist evaluations where they’re warranted. The post on what home inspectors can’t inspect goes into those limits.
Side by side
The short version:
- Who hires them. Building inspector: the city or county, triggered by a permit. Home inspector: the buyer, seller, or owner.
- What they look at. Building inspector: only the permitted work. Home inspector: the visible condition of the whole house.
- When. Building inspector: during construction, at set stages. Home inspector: usually during a sale, after the house is built.
- What they produce. Building inspector: a pass or a correction notice on the permit. Home inspector: a written report with photos for the client.
- Can they make anyone fix anything? Building inspector: yes, on permitted work. Home inspector: no.
An appraiser is a third role again, and the home inspection vs appraisal post covers that one.
New construction: passed the city, now what?
A new house that passed every city inspection can still have problems. City inspectors check specific items at specific stages. They don’t look at the finished house as a whole, and nothing they sign off covers what happens after the final.
That’s why many buyers of new homes get a new construction home inspection before closing, and an 11-month warranty inspection before the builder’s one-year warranty runs out. Trusted Home Inspections doesn’t do pre-drywall or phase inspections; those inspections happen once the house is finished.
Real Inspection Photos
Work That Looks Like It Skipped the City
Real photos from Russ's reports. The report describes what was seen. Whether it was permitted is a records question.
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Wiring in an attic that appears to be non-professional work. A licensed electrician can evaluate it and say what correction would involve. Unpermitted work in Portland -
Floor framing in a crawlspace with mixed, non-professional alterations. Work like this is worth a closer look by a contractor or engineer. -
An outlet that appears to be a do-it-yourself install, with exposed cable. Electrical work like this is where unpermitted changes matter most for safety.
Permits and unpermitted work
A home inspector doesn’t report anything to the city. If the report describes a basement bedroom with no egress window, or wiring that looks like a later amateur job, that goes to the client, not the building department.
Whether that work had a permit is a records question. A property history report pulls permit records for the address from BuildFax and BuildChek, and the city or county permit office can answer questions about a specific permit. A missing record doesn’t prove the work was unpermitted, since older records weren’t always digitized, but it’s a question worth asking.
This post on unpermitted work in Portland covers what happens after closing, retroactive permits, and the questions to ask before your contingency ends.
A building inspector protects the code. A home inspector informs the buyer. Passing one tells you nothing about the other, so plan on the home inspection either way.
To book a home inspection anywhere in the Portland metro or SW Washington, schedule online any day of the week.
Building Inspector vs Home Inspector FAQ
