How Do You Negotiate Repairs After a Home Inspection?

The inspection report is a bargaining chip with an expiration date. Your inspection contingency gives you a fixed number of days to deliver a repair request, accept the property as it stands, or terminate with your deposit, and the seller’s obligations depend entirely on what the contract says happens next. Ask for everything and the seller may refuse everything. To negotiate repairs after a home inspection well, ask for the right things, in the right form, before the deadline, and put the result in a signed addendum.

Read the contingency before the report arrives

Inspection clauses differ, and the difference controls your options. Under a “void-only” clause, the buyer may terminate within the period or proceed, and the seller has no obligation to negotiate at all; any repair request is a courtesy the seller can ignore. Under a “repair request” clause, the buyer delivers a written list, the seller has a stated number of days to respond, and if the parties do not reach agreement the buyer may terminate within a further window. Some forms treat a buyer’s silence at the deadline as acceptance of the property; others treat the seller’s silence as a refusal that reopens the buyer’s right to void. Our contract negotiation team reads the clause and the addenda the day the contract is ratified, and our explanation of how contingencies work covers the deadline mechanics in detail.

Prioritize safety, structure, and systems

A typical report lists dozens of items, and a request that repeats all of them signals that the buyer has not thought about what matters. Sort the findings into categories. Health and safety items (electrical hazards, gas leaks, radon above the action level, active mold, missing handrails) and structural or water-intrusion problems (foundation movement, roof leaks, grading that drains toward the house) come first. Major systems near the end of their service life (furnace, air conditioning, water heater, roof covering) come second, and the question there is cost rather than safety. Permit and code issues, such as an unpermitted addition, deserve their own line because they affect resale and insurance. Cosmetic items should be left off the list entirely. Where the report recommends further evaluation, get the specialist (a structural engineer, a chimney sweep, a sewer line scope) and a contractor estimate inside the contingency period, because an unquantified request is easy to refuse.

Repairs, credits, or a price reduction

Once you know what you want fixed, decide how. There are three forms, and they are not interchangeable:

• Seller repairs before closing: the seller controls the contractor and the quality. If you choose this, require a licensed contractor, permits where needed, paid receipts, transfer of any warranty, completion before the final walk-through, and a right to re-inspect.
• A closing credit: the seller contributes a stated sum toward the buyer’s closing costs, and the buyer fixes the problem after closing with a contractor of their choice. Lenders cap seller contributions depending on the loan type and down payment, and the credit generally cannot exceed the buyer’s actual closing costs or be paid as cash.
• A price reduction: the purchase price drops, which lowers the loan amount and the transfer taxes but puts less cash in the buyer’s hands at closing than a credit of the same size.

Many negotiated outcomes combine them: the seller fixes the safety items and credits the rest. One category is not optional. If the buyer’s loan is government-backed, the appraiser may condition the loan on specific repairs, and those must be completed before closing regardless of what the buyer and seller would prefer.

Put the agreement in a signed addendum

Verbal agreements through the agents are where repair deals fall apart. The addendum should describe each item specifically, state the standard (“repair” and “replace” are different promises), name who performs the work and by when, require proof, and say what happens if the work is not done by closing. The usual answer is an escrow holdback: a portion of the seller’s proceeds stays with the settlement agent until the work is complete, with a deadline and a mechanism for release. The final walk-through is the buyer’s chance to verify, and the contract should make completion a condition of closing rather than a promise to be chased afterward. If the seller is selling under an as-is clause, the seller may decline every request; our note on what an as-is clause means explains why a credit is often still available even then.

When to walk, and what the seller now knows

Sometimes the right answer is termination. If the cost of the problems exceeds what the seller will concede and the price no longer makes sense, deliver the termination notice within the contingency period, in the form the contract requires, and recover the deposit. One consequence falls on the seller: having received the inspection report, the seller now knows about the defects, and in jurisdictions with a disclosure form the seller’s answers to the next buyer must reflect that knowledge. Our summary of seller disclosure requirements explains how that works in the District, Virginia, and New York. Buyers should keep that in mind when deciding how to share the report, and sellers should keep it in mind when deciding whether a credit now is cheaper than a disclosure later. Either way, the closing process goes more smoothly when the repair terms were settled in writing weeks earlier.

If you have an inspection report in hand and a deadline approaching, a consultation with Capitol Law Partners can shape the request and the addendum before the window closes. Schedule a consultation.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by this communication.

Attorney Cagatay Ersoy. Practical strategy for founders, investors, and growing companies.

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