The inspection report alone doesn’t require anyone to make a repair. That’s the answer to what repairs are required after a home inspection. We report what the inspection found. What you do with the findings is entirely up to you. Someone else’s rules can make a repair required: a lender for its loan, an insurer for coverage, a municipality with a resale rule, or the agreement of sale once both sides write a repair into it. Ask each one early. Treat the rest as a negotiation list.
The risk is late news. A lender condition, an insurer’s question or a township rule can turn up when the inspection window has already closed. Or you spend leverage on items nobody required. This article is general information, not legal advice. Send agreement questions to your real estate agent or a real estate attorney, loan questions to your loan officer, policy questions to your insurance agent, and municipal questions to the local code office.
Does the Inspection Report Itself Require Any Repair?
No. Our written report identifies any deficiencies and rates their severity. It grades every system and flags items needing immediate attention or future monitoring. Those flags are the inspector’s ratings of what the inspection found. They aren’t orders. What you do with the findings is entirely up to you.
How the law and your agreement of sale apply to a repair is a question for your real estate agent or a real estate attorney. We document what we find. The legal, lender, insurer and municipal questions belong to the people who own them.
What Repairs Are Required After a Home Inspection When a Lender Is Involved?
A lender can set conditions for its loan. According to the CFPB’s buyer guide, some loan programs might require the property to meet specified standards, so an appraisal could say the property is subject to repairs. If major repairs like a new roof are needed, the guide says the lender can require them before closing as a loan condition.
Which conditions a loan carries depends on the loan and the lender. That guide also says the lender could instead ask you to put enough money in a special account to pay for the repair right after closing. We can’t tell you which path your loan takes. Your loan officer can. Ask while the inspection window is still open, and ask for the answer in writing. A useful way to ask: here is what the report found, so does this loan carry any repair condition, and what would satisfy it?
Our post on the wood-destroying insect report explains which loan types ask for one. It’s one worked example of an item that comes from the lender’s side rather than from the report.
Can an Insurance Company Require Repairs?
An insurer can set conditions for the coverage it offers. Whether it asks about a finding, asks for a repair or declines a house is that company’s decision under its own rules. A report can’t tell you which way a company will go. Your insurance agent can.
So take the findings to your insurance agent before the inspection window closes, and ask which ones matter to the company. Picture a report with a line that flags an item needing immediate attention. That’s the kind of line to read out to the agent. Ask for the answer in writing. A written answer is something you can act on, and something you can show your real estate agent.
Does the Township Ever Require Repairs Before a Sale?
In some places, yes. West Pottsgrove Township in Montgomery County has a resale use and occupancy ordinance. According to that township’s resale ordinance, certificates of use and occupancy shall be required for all properties before sale, except for exempt transfers. It also says buyers of properties with known substantial violations must comply with its compliance requirements.
That same ordinance describes a township inspection. It defines a substantial violation as one discovered during the course of a township inspection. That’s the township’s own look at the property, and it’s separate from the inspection you hire as a buyer.
Whether your own municipality has a rule like that, and what it would cover, depends on the municipality. The report can’t answer it. Call or email the local code office before you assume either way, and get the answer before the inspection window closes. Ask whether a resale rule applies to the address, and what it covers.
Safety Findings Matter Even When No One Requires the Fix
A finding can be important without being required by anyone. Those are separate questions. Our report flags items needing immediate attention or future monitoring, and that flag is the inspector’s rating of what we saw. It isn’t a requirement handed down by someone else. Treat it as a reason to act, and a reason to ask.
The negotiating side of this has its own article. Our post on what to ask the seller for after a home inspection sorts safety and health findings to the top of the list. Start there for that part. We won’t repeat it here.
Meanwhile, put the safety items in front of the people who can say whether they matter on their side: your loan officer, your insurance agent and your real estate agent. Do it in writing. A finding nobody requires can still change what you decide to do.
What Becomes Required Once You and the Seller Agree?
It depends on what the agreement of sale says. As a general rule, a repair becomes someone’s duty between buyer and seller when both sides write it into the agreement. On who pays, the CFPB’s buyer guide says that, depending on the terms of your purchase contract and local market conditions, the seller may or may not agree to pay for the repairs.
If a repair is agreed, it belongs in writing. Which repair. Who arranges it. By when. And how it gets confirmed before closing. Ask your real estate agent or a real estate attorney to word that for your agreement, because the wording matters. Then keep the paperwork for the work: what was done, who did it, and when.
Who pays, and who checks the work, are questions to settle in the agreement, not in the report. If you don’t like how a clause reads, that’s a conversation to have before you sign it.
Frequently Asked Questions About Repairs After a Home Inspection
Which fixes are mandatory after a home inspection?
None of them come from the report itself. The ones that can be required come from somewhere else: a lender’s loan conditions, an insurer’s terms for coverage, a municipal resale rule, or what you and the seller write into the agreement of sale. Check each of those sources for the house in front of you. The answer changes house by house, and loan by loan.
Who pays for repairs after a home inspection?
That comes down to what your agreement of sale says. The CFPB’s buyer guide says you may want to negotiate with the seller about who should make or pay for the repairs, and that the seller may or may not agree. A lender’s condition can call for a repair without saying who pays for it. Ask your real estate agent how to handle that in your offer.
Who checks that agreed repairs were done?
The agreement can say how the work gets confirmed before closing, and who confirms it. So ask your real estate agent what your agreement provides for, and ask early enough to change the wording if you want something different. Keep the paperwork for the work, too. A written record of what was done is something you can point to later.
Is a flagged item the same as a required repair?
No. Our report grades every system and flags items needing immediate attention or future monitoring. Those are the inspector’s ratings of what the inspection found, and they tell you where to look first. A repair becomes required when a lender, an insurer, a municipality or your agreement of sale requires it. A flag is information you can use.
What does the written report give you to take to a lender, an insurer or a township?
A detailed, photo-documented written report that identifies any deficiencies and rates their severity, delivered within 24 hours. One of our inspectors performs a visual examination of the structure and the home’s main systems, then documents every finding with photographs. When you take a finding to one of them, you have something specific to show.
Ask Before the Inspection Window Closes
Inspection Professionals’ written report documents every finding with photographs and is delivered within 24 hours, so you can see the evidence for each finding rather than a summary.
A documented finding is something you can put in front of someone else. You’re not asking a lender, an insurance agent or a code office to react to a vague worry. You’re handing over a specific finding with a photograph and asking a plain question: does this matter to you, and do you require anything? Ask for each answer in writing, while the inspection window is still open.
A full home inspection is the written report to have in hand while you ask.
When you’re buying in Bucks County, Montgomery County, Philadelphia or Delaware County, contact Inspection Professionals to talk through what a full written inspection documents, so you know what repairs are required after a home inspection and who can require them.