The township inspects before the deed moves
Pennsylvania’s Act 133 of 2016 sets the frame. A municipality that inspects houses at resale has to issue one of three things.
A full use-and-occupancy certificate, when the house complies. A temporary certificate when there are ordinary violations, which lets the buyer move in and fix them, generally inside twelve months. Or a temporary access certificate when the inspector finds at least one substantial violation, which means nobody occupies the house until the work is finished. A house is “unfit for habitation” under the act when the repair cost tops half the purchase price.
That’s the ceiling the townships work under. What’s inside it varies block to block, which is Delco.
Upper Darby: inside the house, and down the pipe
Upper Darby requires a U&O for every sale, transfer and change of occupancy. Since July 1, 2024 it’s an interior and exterior inspection under the 2015 International Property Maintenance Code, not a look from the sidewalk. Apply at least 14 business days before settlement; four weeks is the advice.
Fees effective January 1, 2026: $110 for a single family, $135 for a duplex, each including one reinspection. Reinspections after that are $75. A no-show is $100. Expect smoke alarms in every bedroom and on every level, carbon monoxide detection near bedrooms, a zoning conformity check and a look at the complaint history.
Then the lateral. Upper Darby requires a sewer lateral certification from a township-licensed contractor, and it’s valid 90 days. The township makes the pass or fail call. A missing certificate counts as a substantial violation, and the ordinance behind it passed on April 16, 2020, after the township ran the numbers on its failing sewers. A buyer who takes the house with a failed lateral gets twelve months to repair it.
Ninety days matters. If settlement slips past that window, somebody is paying for a second camera run.
The rest, town by town
| Municipality | Fee | Notice | Lateral |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Darby | $110 single / $135 duplex | 14 business days, 4 weeks advised | Certification, township-licensed contractor, valid 90 days |
| Darby Borough | $175, $75 reinspection or no-show | Two weeks, no exceptions | Sewer lateral report form |
| Yeadon | $150 | 30 days | Sanitary sewer checked within the general inspection |
| Lansdowne | $100 per unit, $75 expedite | 30 days | Not listed |
| Clifton Heights | $100 per unit, two inspections included, $50 each after | 30 days | Visual sewer check |
| Springfield | $75, or $175 inside 15 days, $25 third visit | 30 days | Curb vent and drain separation checked |
| Swarthmore | $100 per unit per visit | 15 days | Not listed |
| Nether Providence | $100, $50 reinspection | 30 days | Camera video plus a dye or smoke test |
Where the township checklist meets your loan
Nether Providence is the strictest of that group on the pipe: a lateral video plus a dye or smoke test, performed by an LACP-certified or township-certified plumber, required since January 1, 2016 under Ordinance 782. The township’s code makes the private lateral inspected and repaired before any U&O is issued.
Lansdowne’s checklist is the one that overlaps hardest with an FHA appraisal: hardwired smoke alarms on every level and in bedrooms, hardwired carbon monoxide detection at fuel-burning equipment, GFCIs, handrails, and no peeling paint. Clifton Heights offers a “use only” certificate on an as-is sale, so the buyer takes the house and cures the items afterward.
“Not listed” in that table means we could not confirm a separate lateral requirement, and it does not mean there isn’t one.
Who orders it, who pays, how long it takes
The seller or the listing agent normally files the application, because the certificate is a condition of transferring the property. The fee is negotiable like everything else in the Agreement of Sale, so get the split in writing instead of assuming.
The lateral test is a different animal. It’s performed by a licensed or township-approved contractor, and several towns keep a list you have to use. Booking one in season takes longer than the inspection itself.
Timing is the real constraint. The fee is a rounding error next to your transfer tax. Missing a 30-day notice window in the middle of a 45-day settlement is what actually hurts, and townships are not sentimental about it. Put the U&O application on the calendar the day the contract is signed.
When it fails a week before settlement
This is the scenario. Camera goes down the lateral on a Tuesday, finds a break under the sidewalk, and settlement is the following Monday.
Act 133 decides what’s possible. If the township calls it an ordinary violation, a temporary certificate lets you close and move in with a repair window, generally twelve months. If it’s a substantial violation, you get a temporary access certificate and nobody lives there until it’s fixed, which changes your loan, your lease end date and your movers all at once.
Escrow is the usual bridge, and it’s local. Upland, for example, requires an escrow of at least a third of the repair cost with 18 months to finish the work. Whether your lender will fund with a repair escrow is a separate question and it’s the lender’s answer, so ask early. Subject to lender approval, always.
Confirm it with the township
This page covers the municipalities we could confirm from township pages and the realtor associations’ municipal database, with entries dated between November 2025 and August 2026. Those are summaries, not ordinances, and Delco boroughs amend fees and requirements regularly. The City of Chester’s point-of-sale inspection is gone as of July 2025, and something else will change next quarter.
So call the township before you write the offer, ask for the current fee and the current notice window, and ask specifically whether they want the lateral. Two minutes on the phone beats a certificate that arrives after settlement.