Aug
16
Use and Occupancy Inspection - When They Become Deal Killers
Posted by Glen Russell under For Buyers, For Sellers, For Realty Professionals, General Information
In the August/September issue of “Realtor News” I came across an appealing article about U&O’s. As a realtor, it’s something I am very familiar with, and if you are a buyer or seller - something that should be important to you as well.
The article is written by the Alliance CEO/President - Jamie Ridge - ENJOY!
Given the still fragile state of the economy, you might assume that local governments would be doing everything in their power to expedite and support economic activity in their own domains. Since revenue from real estate sales and property taxes are a prime ingredient of local budgets in Pennsylvania, you might even assume that townships and boroughs might “loosen up a little” regarding the regulations that govern the sale of real estate. Sadly, this isn’t the case in some of our municipalities.
Too often lately, there seems to be disconnect between the need for revenue generated by real estate sales and the desire of municipal officials to micro-manage and control these transactions. Nearly every day, we hear from members who are facing challenges created by local regulations that seemed designed to make it more difficult to reach the settlement table. While many of these regulations are well intentioned, they often end up discouraging real estate activity and ultimately hurting the municipalities themselves.
While there are many ways that municipalities can insert themselves into a real estate transaction, by far the most troubling is the use and occupancy inspection. In a perfect world, the use and occupancy inspection would not be conducted at the point of re-sale. Why should just home sellers and home buyers be responsible for meeting health and safety standards that should be consistent throughout an entire community?
Unfortunately, the reality in southeastern Pennsylvania is that many boroughs and townships require use and occupancy certificates as a condition of re-sale. The problem is that despite the PA Uniform Construction Code and its stated goal of making local codes and regulations more consistent, we’ve got local code inspectors with their own ideas of how strictly the code should be enforced.
The result in some communities is confusion over what points will be covered during a re-sale inspection. Will the inspection be limited to just several critical health and safety issues such as smoke detectors, electrical wiring and handrails, or will the code enforcement official walk into a home with the intent of conducting what would qualify as a new construction inspection on an older home? We’ve seen both, with the latter potentially costing thousands of dollars to comply with a myriad of code requirements that often have little to do with health and safety issues.
Our advice to municipalities who are struggling to generate revenue and balance budgets in these slow economic times? Ease up on the burdensome use and occupancy inspection requirements that make REALTORS and homebuyers think twice about doing business in your community. With the vast majority of homebuyers already taking advantage of the services offered by private home inspectors prior to purchasing a property, municipal inspections are often redundant anyway.
Our advice to REALTORS? Learn more about what to expect in the boroughs and townships you do business in by visiting our municipal database at www.suburbanrealtorsalliance.com. The database is a free service to you, and includes most of the information you’ll need to know about the home re-sale process in each of our 238 municipalities.
Make it an awesome day!
Glen Russell
610.792.3000
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