Where do I complain about a home inspector in Ontario?

Start with ontario.ca's consumer complaint page. Ontario passed a Home Inspection Act in 2017, but it has not been brought into force, so there is no provincial licence today and no licensing body for home inspectors. Ontario.ca links complaints about a home inspector or a home inspection to its general consumer complaint process.

That page sets limits: it says the Ministry may not be able to help if a complaint focuses on the quality of a good or service beyond the basic guarantees in consumer protection legislation, or if it happened more than two years ago. RECO, which regulates real estate agents, says it does not regulate home inspectors.

The consumer protection law that does apply is the Consumer Protection Act, 2002:

• It deems services supplied under a consumer agreement to be of a reasonably acceptable quality, and says a contract term that tries to negate that is void.
• If the agreement included an estimate, the supplier cannot charge more than 10 per cent above it.

Anything beyond that, including whether a clause limiting the inspector's liability to the fee holds up, or whether a claim for something the report missed is worth pursuing, is a question for a lawyer.

Before you complain, gather the written contract, the report, your emails with the inspector, and written quotes from the trades who looked at the problem. Ontario.ca's list of what a report will normally show, and its plain statements that an inspection is visual and that an inspector cannot see or find everything, are the reference points for whether something was in scope.

Start with the written contract: it says what the inspector agreed to examine, which is the first thing any complaint turns on.