Correction Costs for Rental Certification

[Liz P.]

Hi all!

My husband and I recently had our first offer accepted on a 6 bedroom student rental house near campus. We're really excited about finally getting started, but unfortunately, our offer was accepted right before Covid-19 which has complicated things. In our original offer, the seller was responsible for recertifying the property prior to close (rental certification expires in May). Due to Covid-19, the city inspection was moved to June with a certification extension until September. This puts us way past our closing date and the seller didn't agree to extend the closing (but did include $3,300 toward the cost). This isn't a deal-breaker for us, but the uncertainty does give us some pause. Our inspection identified around $2500 in repairs (not including a roof that only has about 5 years left in it before it'll need some work). 

I know there are a lot of variables that go into this, but on average, how much have you spent on city recertification/corrections? Have you ever had an older roof that you were told needed to be outright replaced? I'd love to know what your experiences are and whether this is a situation we should run away from or something fairly insignificant. Thanks all! 

[Bjorn Ahlblad]

@Liz P. we had an inspection of a 12 unit last fall. They inspected 2 units and said they would be back in a year or more. The inspection cost a few hundred dollars and we painted some yellow caution paint on outside stairs. Generally they are looking for things that would cause safety issues or real inconvenience for a tenant. No hot water, stove not working, no heat, broken windows, door locks not working, loose railing, no lighting in common areas, garbage not in dumpster, no smoke/co2 detectors, etc. anyway that has been our experience. If you are doing your job as a LL you should have few or no problems. All the best!