The unit inspection

Before a housing authority starts paying the owner, it inspects the unit. This page is a plain-language summary, not the checklist your authority uses.

This is not legal advice and not a decision by a housing authority. Applying for a voucher is free.

Why there is an inspection

The authority has to confirm the unit is decent, safe, and sanitary before it signs the housing assistance payments contract. That duty is in 24 CFR 982.405. The authority also inspects again on a schedule, and when there is a complaint.

HUD is moving these inspections to its National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate, called NSPIRE. Your authority will tell you whether it is using NSPIRE or the older housing quality standards for your inspection. The failed items, if any, come from that inspection, not from a generic list on this site.

If the unit does not pass

The owner usually has to make the repairs. Ask the authority which items failed and the date of the next inspection. Do not pay the owner a side fee to “make the voucher go through.”

Letter you can copy

Fill in the brackets. Then send it the way your housing authority accepts mail, email, or a portal message.

[Date]

[Housing authority name]
[Housing authority address]

Re: Request to schedule a Housing Choice Voucher inspection

My name is [your name]. My client number, if I have one, is [number].

I want to rent the unit at [unit address]. The owner is [owner name], and their phone or email is [owner contact]. Please schedule the inspection the program requires before assistance can start, and tell me the date, who must be there, and what happens if the unit does not pass.

You can reach me at [phone] or [email].

Thank you,
[Your name]

Where this comes from

24 CFR 982.405, housing quality standards inspections.
HUD’s NSPIRE standards. The housing authority says which checklist it is using.