Truth-In-Housing Pre-Inspections

If you need a Truth-in-Housing inspection but you’re worried about having 'The City' come through your house, have a pre-inspection done.  A pre-inspection is an inspection done by a private evaluator to let you know about the items in your home that would require repair on an official Truth-in-Housing inspection.   Instead of talking about the details of how a pre-inspection works, I’ll tell a story.  Hopefully this will make it easier to understand.

Jane is getting ready to sell her home in Minneapolis, and knows she needs a Truth-in-Housing inspection before she can list her house for sale, so she hires me, a licensed evaluator with Minneapolis, to inspect her house.  I spend about an hour walking around the house with Jane, making notes in my computer the whole time.

At the end of the inspection, there are a few things I’ve identified that require repair in Minneapolis; non-functional smoke detectors, missing CO alarms, and missing vacuum breakers.  These are rated on the report as RRE items – “Repair / Replace, Evaluator” – this means that an Evaluator (such as myself) needs to verify repair of these items.  Another item that requires repair is the water heater flue, because it’s backpitched.  This is rated as RRP – “Repair / Replace, Permit” – this means that a permit is required to do the repair, and an employee of the city of Minneapolis will need to inspect the repairs  A number of other items are rated as B – “Below Minimum Requirements”.  These are things like a missing handrail at the stairway, missing cover plates on outlets, and a broken window.  These items don’t require repair.
I explain these items to Jane, and tell her she has a few choices:

Get the final report. This is probably her least desirable option, because there will be a bunch of items on the report for anyone to see, making her house less desirable than another house with a ‘clean’ report.   The benefit would be that she can list her house right away.  If she gets the report, she has two more choices to make – fix the items and have them re-inspected, or sell her house as-is.  If she sells her house as-is, whoever buys the house will need to sign a responsibility agreement, saying that they’ll be responsible for repairing the RRE and RRP items, and have them inspected within 90 days of closing.  Most buyers aren’t interested in taking on other people’s repairs, so this is usually a last resort for sellers.

Get a pre-inspection.  This means that I will print an informal list of items that would show up on the final report.  Jane will have 35 days to complete these repairs and have me come back to verify they’re corrected.   I tell Jane that she needs to obtain a permit to repair her water heater flue, but I won’t be checking for permits when I come back; I’ll be checking to make sure the repairs are correct.  The only drawback to doing a pre-inspection is that she can’t put her house on the market right away.

Jane decides to go with a pre-inspection, and has me back out three weeks later.  The re-inspection takes about five minutes, and I verify that Jane has corrected all of the “RRE” and “RRP” items, and has even fixed all of the “B” items.  I give her a clean report, and she puts her house on the market that day.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minneapolis Truth-in-Sale of Housing Evaluator


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Truth-in-Housing Basics

Truth-in-Housing Basics

If you’re planning on selling a home in the Minneapolis or Saint Paul area, there is a good chance you will need to have a home inspection done before you sell your house (possibly several).   There are two types of home inspections, private and city.  Today I’ll talk about city inspections.

City inspections are required in 14 metro cities, including Minneapolis and Saint Paul.  At the Truth in Housing page I have a full list of these cities with specific requirements for each city.  These are inspections that must be done by a city employee or sub-contractor for the city before the house is sold, and in many cities, before the house is even offered for sale.  Some cities, such as Saint Louis Park, do code compliance inspections and require repairs to be made on things that aren’t up to code.  Other cities, such as Maplewood, require only a disclosure report, and no repairs ever need to be done.

These reports are commonly referred to as Truth in Housing, Time of Sale, or Point of Sale inspections, among many other terms.  I am calling these ‘city inspections’ for lack of a better term – it would be nice if every city could call their inspections the same thing.  While on that topic, it would also be nice if every city had the same requirements!  In Minneapolis, you need a working smoke detector on every level of the home.  Bloomington requires the same, plus a working detector in every bedroom.  In Saint Paul, you only need one working smoke detector in the home, but it needs to be hardwired.

Even though each city has specific requirements, there are some items that are fairly universal to all the cities that have repair programs:

Vacuum Breaker

• Vacuum Breakers - aka backflow preventers.  This is a device that can be purchased at most hardware stores, and should be screwed on to the end of any exterior sillcocks, or indoor faucets that could accept a garden hose thread (typically the laundry faucet).   These are basically one-way valves that protect the city's water supply from potential contamination.  Note the set screw in the vacuum breaker pictured to the right - this set screw should be tightened down until broken off to make sure the vacuum breaker is permanently installed.
• Smoke Detectors are recommended in every bedroom and one in a common area on every level, such as a hallway.  Take time to test every detector in the house, install new batteries if needed, or replace the detector if defective.   Smoke detectors should ideally be located on the ceiling in the middle of the room, and never closer than four to six inches to a wall if mounted on the ceiling.  If mounted on a wall, follow manufactures instructions for location.
• Plumbing leaks and electrical hazards make up a large portion of the repair items.  Before having your inspection, take time to make sure there are no leaking plumbing fixtures.  To test the sink, fill the sink up with four inches of water, and then let it drain.  Look underneath with a flashlight to make sure there are no small drips, and also check the faucet handles for leaks - laundry faucets are the most common offenders.  To ensure no electrical issues, replace any missing cover plates at outlets and switches - check the outlet behind your fridge too!  Make sure there are no permanently installed appliances running on extension cords - the most common offenders are garage door openers and water softeners.

While these items make up only a small portion of what I look for during city inspections, these are certainly some of the most common repair items, and are often some of the easiest items to take care of ahead of time.  Feel free to contact me for any specific questions about these requirements.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections – Email – Truth in Sale of Housing Evaluator