David Barr, Director of Community Development for the City of Reading and Heather Scheuring, Blight and Transfer Officer for the City of Reading, sat down with our own Mark Mohn, Government Affairs Director, to answer the questions you've been asking! View the interview HERE.
Based on REALTOR® feedback, the City has now combined the Certificate of Transfer form and the Inspection Application into one form FOUND HERE. This new form is in effect as of 1/29/2026. This combined form should assist in mitigating some of the submissions issues that have been experienced.
City of Reading Property Transfer Inspection Q&A
You’ve been asking questions and we have answers! Mark Mohn, Government Affairs Director of R-BAR, has been in contact with the City of Reading regarding the new ordinance changing property transfer inspection from post-settlement to pre-settlement. Below are the answers from the City on some of the top questions Mark has been hearing. If you have questions or issues, please feel free to reach out to Mark at mark@realestateinberks.com. Or, if the system is working and you have a success story, Mark would like to hear that, too!
- What is the timeframe or expiration period once a property transfer inspection is completed? If a transaction falls through, how long is that inspection valid for?
- Upon successful completion of a property transfer inspection, a Property Transfer Compliance Letter is issued and is valid for 12 months, provided the owner/seller remains the same. If the property does not transfer within that 12-month period and remains for sale under the original owner, a new property transfer inspection is required, at half the fee of the original inspection.
- If a property transfers ownership and is then resold within a short period of time, would the original transfer inspection—and the review of required repairs—be sufficient for the second transfer?
- Under the ordinance, a property transfer inspection is only valid for 90 days in this scenario. A new inspection would be required for the subsequent transfer if it occurs beyond that timeframe.
- What is the policy for property transfer inspections related to sheriff sales, tax sales, or foreclosures? Will these transactions follow the same inspection and repair timelines?
- Yes, these properties will still be inspected, but inspections occur after the sale. The City recognizes that the transfer of deed can take several weeks or months. Once notification is received that the deed has officially transferred, the inspection will be automatically scheduled, and the new owner will be notified of the inspection date and time. These transactions will be handled in the same manner as deed transfers have been in the past.
- If a seller wants to be proactive, can they have the property transfer inspection completed when the property is listed, rather than waiting until it is under agreement and applying for the Certificate of Transfer?
- A seller may request the property transfer inspection at any time. However, the inspection must be completed no later than 30 days prior to settlement to avoid rush fees.
- How many inspectors will be handling Property Transfer Inspections throughout the City?
- Currently, Property Transfer Inspections are handled by one primary inspector, Rashida Suber, with additional inspectors from PMI available as needed. To date, there have been no issues keeping up with inspection demand.
- For clarity, can someone acting as a representative on behalf of a seller request the Certificate of Transfer (COT)? What should members know to make this part of the process as smooth as possible?
- Requests for a Property Transfer Inspection may be submitted by the seller or the seller’s agent/authorized representative.
- Is there a way for a listing broker to confirm permitted property usage with the City to ensure marketing aligns with zoning requirements?
- Any agent may contact Heather Scheuring heather.scheuring@readingpa.gov at any time to confirm the zoning designation for a property if there are questions regarding permitted use.
If an agent needs a copy of the report, invoice or compliance letter, please email Heather Scheuring, Blight/Property Transfer Officer, at heather.scheuring@readingpa.gov and she will produce them in less than 24 hours. Per the ordinance, the City is required to mail those copies to the owner of record. For tracking purposes, please email Heather with these requests.
City of Reading Contact
Heather Scheuring, Blight/Property Transfer Officer Heather.Scheuring@ReadingPA.gov | (610) 655-6311
David Barr, Community Development Director David.Barr@readingpa.gov
Effective January 1, 2026, the City of Reading has changed the property transfer inspection from post-settlement to pre-settlement. We want to share some important context.
R-BAR has been actively involved in discussions with the City for over a year regarding this change. While the City was determined to move forward with pre-settlement inspections, R-BAR’s Government Affairs Director, Mark Mohn, worked closely with City officials to address concerns around timeliness, consistency, transparency, and reliability.
Because of REALTOR® input, several improvements were made — including ensuring compliance with the MCOCA Act of 2016, which allows 12 months to complete repairs instead of the originally proposed 30 days.
While no transfer inspection is ideal, R-BAR’s advocacy helped make this process as workable as possible for our members. We will continue monitoring the City’s implementation to ensure commitments are met.
This change has been communicated through emails, events, and the December issue of Property Lines (page 34-35). Please find the article from the City of Reading below. If you are not receiving R-BAR communications, please email courtney@realestateinberks.com to rectify the situation.
Please contact Mark Mohn at mark@realestateinberks.com if you have any questions.
*Please note, that if the Certificate of Transfer (COT), was requested and/or issued prior to 1/1/26, that property will not fall under this requirement. However, if the old Certificate of Transfer was not requested and/or issued prior to 1/1/26, an inspection WILL be required.
UPDATE from David Barr 1/7/26 2:34 p.m. - Anything under contract prior to 1/1/26 that had already requested the Certificate of Transfer would not be required to adhere, regardless of settlement date. Our RUSH fee will come into play later. We are not charging the RUSH fee until probably 3/1 at this point, to give people a chance to adjust.
The only exception will be Sheriff/Tax/Upset sales which will be inspected after deed transfer.
From the City of Reading: Call for Comments from R-BAR Members
By: David Barr, Community Development Director for the City of Reading | david.barr@readingpa.gov
Beginning January 1, 2026, the City of Reading proposes to begin requiring any City property owner who offers a property for sale to have that property inspected for code compliance. Sellers would be responsible for paying an inspection fee ($200) when they request the inspection. Once the inspection is completed the officer will prepare a pre-sale inspection report outlining all code violations. If the officer finds no code violations, s/he will issue a certificate of compliance, which will be valid for one year from the date of inspection. If code violations are found, the seller may fix the violations or give the buyer a copy of the report, listing all violations. If violations will not be remediated prior to the settlement date, to complete the sale, the buyer must commit to abating the violations within 12 months from the purchase date.
Does this Replace a Home Inspection? This is a code and zoning inspection only, not a general home inspection for maintenance or other non-code matters.
Why Switch Back to Pre-Sale Inspections? According to the PA Residential Real Estate Transfers Law, sellers are required to provide any details about the home that buyers may find problematic. So, if the preinspection reveals significant problems with a house, the seller is required to directly correct that problem or disclose/include that information in the listing. When the City of Reading stopped requiring presale inspections it made it possible for sellers to plausibly deny any knowledge of the kinds of problems that an inspection would have discovered.
The current practice makes it possible for a buyer to purchase a property without a full understanding of whether it has serious and costly code violations. Once they learn of these violations later, they may decide not to correct them, and leave the house either vacant, or rent/ occupy them anyway. This contributes to the blighted property issue in the City of Reading.
Another significant factor is a requirement that the seller notify the City of the buyer’s name and address within three days of the transfer. That requirement helps end the practice by some absentee owners of falsely listing the property address as their own address.
Pre-sale inspections also allow for the verification of the property’s allowable use before sale and it’s compliance with zoning ordinances. In particular, presale inspections would allow the City to identify single family properties that have been illegally converted to multi-family use. Pre-sale inspections are particularly important when a property is repeatedly transferred to absentee owners who are difficult to hold to local standards. The pre-sale inspection will apply not only to buyers and sellers in Pennsylvania but also to those out-of-state, and gives the City the opportunity to hold property owners responsible for meeting property improvement standards. Our current “reactive” approach – by pursuing negligent property owners after they cause problems, rather than preventing problems in the first place, is costly and inefficient.
This would align the City’s practices with most other municipalities, and assure that buyers have as much information as possible before committing to purchase a home.
Can Community Development Support This Added Workload? Pre-sale inspections had been the standard practice within the City of Reading in the past but were discontinued based on the high vacancy rate in our property maintenance inspection staff. Now that we are at near full staffing we consider it appropriate to revert back to that practice.
We have compiled 5 years of data for Certificate of Transfers and found a range of 15 to 23 transfers have been occurring per week, or between 61 and 90 per month. We will assume an average of 20 pre-sale inspections per week, which can be supported initially by one primary inspector for this program, supplemented by other PMI staff as needed to meet surges in requests. This will ensure consistency in the approach and standards applied during the process, while also ensuring timeliness. Expedited sales can be accommodated if identified in the application.
What if I need the inspection expedited? For closings within 15 days a “Rush Fee” of $50 (in addition to the $200 inspection fee) will be added, and the inspection expedited to meet this timeframe.
What if Buyers Do Not Address Code Violations within 12 months? New property owners will receive escalating fines in accordance with the City’s policy for any violations that are not addressed within 12 months. If we find that compliance is a widespread problem, the City will consider revising this policy and disallow sale of properties until all violations have been corrected in accordance with section 107.6 from the adopted IPMC 2018 by the City of Reading that refers to the transfer of ownership*
* 107.6 Transfer of ownership. It shall be unlawful for the owner of any dwelling unit or structure who has received a compliance order or upon whom a notice of violation has been served to sell, transfer, mortgage, lease or otherwise dispose of such dwelling unit or structure to another until the provisions of the compliance order or notice of violation have been complied with, or until such owner or the owner’s authorized agent shall first furnish the grantee, transferee, mortgagee or lessee a true copy of any compliance order or notice of violation issued by the code official and shall furnish to the code official a signed and notarized statement from the grantee, transferee, mortgagee or lessee, acknowledging the receipt of such compliance order or notice of violation and fully accepting the responsibility without condition for making the corrections or repairs required by such compliance order or notice of violation. Failure to comply with this section constitutes an offense of this code punishable as set forth in Section 106.4. § 180-1301. Adoption of International Property Maintenance Code.