The coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak is causing municipal and county government offices to drastically reduce their operations — affecting local code inspection processes and county recorder of deeds offices. At the Suburban Realtors® Alliance, we're working to minimize the impact of these changes on Realtors® and their clients who are involved in property transfers.
Because municipalities have different regulations and are reacting to the public health emergency in different ways, each case is unique. If you're involved in a transaction being held up by a municipal closure, your best sources for guidance right now are your company’s broker and counsel, as well as suggesting that sellers and buyers consult with their personal attorneys.
What Realtors® should know:
- Act 133 is still in effect. If a municipality has conducted a U&O inspection, it must issue a resale certificate — at least a temporary access certificate.
- Many municipalities have altered their U&O procedures. Some are issuing conditional U&O certificates without a full inspection, on the condition that buyers (and in some cases sellers and agents) sign affidavits stating that certain items like smoke detectors are already in place and that any issues revealed during the eventual inspection will be the responsibility of the buyer.
- Recorder of Deeds offices in the four SRA counties are being affected by the state of emergency.
- The Suburban Realtors Alliance is available to help you through specific issues. We continue to track news and public legal notices, and we've been assisting members with their municipal issues throughout the region.
Below are resources for more information about how coronavirus is affecting real estate in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Jump to a section of this page:
Best Practices
Buying and selling real estate during a pandemic.
See also: PAR's Real Estate in the Age of COVID-19
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Take the virus seriously — it has infected and killed thousands of people in our area, and the long-term health effects for those who recover are still not known.
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Wear a mask — Visit this CDC guide for tips on how to choose one and make sure it's effective.
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Provide a wastebasket — Whether you provide PPE like booties, gloves and sanitizer available at your listing or the visitors bring their own, it's helpful to have a waste receptacle so used items are not left by the door or carried to another location.
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Keep civil: harsh words hurt us — Vitriolic language can turn off potential clients and colleagues and make lawmakers less open to considering your point of view in the future.
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Limit face-to-face contact — Minimize in-person activities, and minimize attendance to only the most critical individuals, while maintaining social distancing in all in-person interactions. Choose times that minimize contact, such as viewing commercial properties outside of business hours.
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Make a plan to sanitize listings — Creating a checklist to clean a listing after each showing can reassure both sellers and potential buyers who are nervous about exposure to the virus. Read more in Realtor® Magazine: Make a Plan With Sellers to Sanitize Listings
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Have a best practice suggestion?
Email us at sra@suburbanrealtorsalliance.com.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Questions we're hearing from Realtors about this situation.
Is Act 133 still in effect during the coronavirus outbreak?
Yes — if you have a property that was previously inspected, the municipality must issue at least a temporary access permit, allowing buyers of homes deemed “unfit for habitation” to access the building (without residing in it), and make substantial repairs within 12 months. It may also issue a normal use and occupancy permit (U&O) or a temporary U&O permit. Read more about Act 133 and the three types of resale permits here.
What have you heard about ____________ township?
We have been in contact with most boroughs, townships and cities in our coverage area, but the circumstances have been constantly evolving. We ask our members to contact us with issues in specific municipalities. For municipalities that have offered new formal processes for the state of emergency, e.g. those that have created new affidavits, we have updated our municipal database accordingly.
How are the recorder of deeds offices being affected?
We have confirmed that recorders of deeds in Bucks, Chester and Montgomery counties will accept online notarizations in compliance with Gov. Wolf’s temporary order. Those offices also have web-based systems for e-filing and in some cases have waived fees for those services.
The Delaware County Recorder of Deeds does not currently have a web-based system for e-filing and has not responded to our inquiries regarding online notarizations.
How is the outbreak affecting the Delaware County comprehensive reassessment project?
According to the county's project website:
"[A]ll informal property reviews with Tyler Technologies will be conducted by telephone. ... Tyler Technologies will be calling you within an hour of that scheduled time to conduct your informal hearing by phone. ... YOUR PHONE LINE MUST ALLOW CALLS FROM PRIVATE NUMBERS OR WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO REACH YOU."
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Contact Suburban Realtors® Alliance
We want to hear about your experiences — good and bad — in working with municipalities.
Email: sra@suburbanrealtorsalliance.com
Phone: 610-981-9000 (The SRA office is closed, but we are checking messages regularly.)
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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Here's a sampling of what we've been hearing from members since the coronavirus hit our region:
"I have a closing scheduled on March 25, but we need a re-inspection and the borough office just closed."
"The township just told me they are not conducting U & O inspections."
"Since they won't inspect, they want my buyer to sign a waiver saying she'll be responsible for any repairs they require after the sale."
Here are examples of municipalities finding a way to get the job done, even during the crisis:
“We are continuing with external inspections of properties, but we would love to see pictures if possible for the smoke detectors, fire extinguisher, hand rails and relief valve on the water heater. If needed, we will issue a conditional U&O for the property.”
“We are continuing our inspections, but will only enter buildings if they are unoccupied in an effort to protect our staff and avoid spreading the virus.”
Many municipal government offices have shut down or drastically reduced their operations during the public health emergency that is the coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak. Where does that leave Realtors® and their clients? Because municipalities have different regulations and are reacting to the public health emergency in different ways, each case is unique. If you're involved in a transaction being held up by a municipal closure, your best sources for guidance right now are your company’s broker and counsel, as well as suggesting that sellers and buyers consult with their personal attorneys.
The Alliance has been in contact with individual municipalities when a settlement issue has been brought to our attention (with mixed success), and we are actively coordinating with the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors® to find a broader solution to this unprecedented situation.
Here's what we know:
Municipalities can't do use and occupancy inspections if their codes departments are shuttered.
That leaves several possibilities that we have heard:
- An Impasse — Municipalities simply do not inspect, and our members have relied on their own company’s counsel to decide whether to move forward through an agreement between sellers and buyers.
- Waiver/Buyer Responsibility — Municipalities provide a waiver, in which the buyer agrees to be responsible for addressing any code issues cited when an inspection is eventually done, after the sale closes. We have already seen some municipalities issuing such waivers. While they allow the sale to proceed, they put the buyer on the hook for unknown — and potentially significant — expenses.
- A Modified Use & Occupancy Process – Several municipalities have created a new "self-serve" process that allows transactions to move forward through the signing of an affidavit. While there are several versions of this to date, the Aston Township model has been offered by SRA staff as an alternative to allow settlements to move forward without the post-settlement risk to buyers mentioned above.
- A Statewide Solution? — PAR is working closely with statewide associations that represent the Commonwealth’s boroughs and townships to raise this important issue. While it is highly unlikely that a statewide and "one-size-fits-all" solution will be found, PAR and the SRA are actively seeking solutions to help alleviate the challenges being created by the myriad of municipal approaches to use and occupancy inspections and requirements.
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Of course, municipal inspections are just one part of the more complex process of buying or selling a property, and other areas may be similarly affected by the ongoing public health emergency. We will continue to coordinate with our leadership, our shareholders and the state association to find resolutions for these issues.
Please continue to keep us informed about your experiences with local, county and state government during the coronavirus outbreak. Email us at sra@suburbanrealtorsalliance.com.
Dear SRA members,
In response to the coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak in our region, the Suburban Realtors® Alliance office in Malvern is temporarily closed, but our work continues uninterrupted.
Alliance staff are working remotely, starting this week through the end of March. We continue to monitor the news and legal notices for any issues that could affect the members of our three shareholder associations. Our municipal database remains online. We are in contact with government officials to ensure necessary public health measures cause as little disruption to real estate as possible.
Stay in touch.
As always, our Realtor® members are a vital source of on-the-ground information. Please continue to contact us with any questions, concerns or issues you’re experiencing. We are responding promptly to messages sent via email and phone.
As this outbreak progresses, we will send updates as necessary. In the meantime, we encourage you to utilize these sources of information.
Sincerely,
Jamie Ridge
President/CEO, Suburban Realtors Alliance
