Guide to the New Home Inspection Law
At my most recent open house in Winchester, I had several unrepresented buyers ask me about the new law that "requires buyers to have a home inspection." I had to politely inform that while I love that idea, it's definitely not what the new law is stating. So what is really changing? Let me walk you through it:
Current Situation:
Licensed real estate agents (not sellers) must provide all buyer clients with the Home Inspector Consumer Fact Sheet - that's even written on our standard offer forms. Sellers also had no legal right to deny a buyer from doing a home inspection. Because MA has been in such a crazy seller's market for so long, sellers have forgotten then while the standard Home Inspection Contingency on an offer is meant to be used to protect the buyer's deposit should something catastrophic be discovered, the act of waiving that contingency, does not actually mean you cannot or will not do an inspection. Since
New Regulation (link as of 6/6/25)
- Sellers or their agents cannot require buyers to waive or limit a home inspection in order to accept an offer, except at auctions or in exempt cases.
- Sellers cannot accept offers that include required inspection waivers.
- At the time of the first signed contract, sellers or agents must provide a signed disclosure confirming the buyer’s right to inspect and allowing reasonable time to decide based on results.
- Any contract language that effectively nullifies an inspection is a violation.
- Buyers may still choose to waive inspections, but only if the decision is fully voluntary and not influenced by the seller or their agent.
After October 15th, 2025:
Sellers must receive an additional signed disclosure from any buyer before an offer is accepted stating that they were not pressured to waive their inspection. As long as they do that, they can still waive their inspection! The idea is that the buyers can't be pressured to do that but if you have had even a little bit of exposure to the MA market, you know that waving an inspection is a tool many buyers will gladly use to win their dream home or to avoid bidding even high and driving up prices more. It's not the right tactic for every buyer but if that ability was taken away, I would bet home prices would go up even faster.
Predicted Changes:
Much like the minimal change of buyer's agents being required to use contracts with their clients (I’ve been doing this for my whole career!), I don't expect to see any big changes after October 15th, 2025, except that the packet you sign before submitting an offer will have a couple extra pages of disclosures. Buyers will still waive their inspection to compete against other buyers or to avoid throwing more money at the seller.
Consumer protection is paramount and part of why I love my job so much is because I can stay on top of the regulations, trends and strategies to best inform and protect my clients. So while this was well intentioned, I really don't think it's going to have the effect the government hopes for - we'll see! Honestly, I'd love it if inspections were legally mandated, that'd be great and the home inspector job market would have a great boom too!