City of Minneapolis Truth in Housing Program

The city of Minneapolis requires a truth and housing evaluation prior to marketing any property.  All areas of the property must be accessed including basement, attics, garages and all outbuildings.  All utilities must be on including water, heat and electricity.  All furnaces, water heaters and all auxiliary heaters must be operated.  This report is required all single-family, duplex, townhouse and all first-time condominium conversions.  The report must be on-site and available for all potential buyers to view. 

NO PROPERTY SHALL BE SHOWN WITHOUT A CURRENT TRUTH IN HOUSING REPORT ON SITE. Additionally a copy must be provided to the buyer at the time of signing a purchase agreement.

A pre-inspection may be done on the property allowing the seller to correct all repair and replace items before marketing the property.  This will make the transition of titles easier as well as help ensure a good selling price .Remember that the property can not be marketed in any way on a pre- inspection

The city of Minneapolis requires that all repair replace items (RR) be corrected.  It is currently the responsibility of either the seller or the buyer to make these corrections.  The seller may elect to make the corrections in order to make the property more marketable.  Once  the repair replace items are corrected a re-inspection by the evaluator on all non-permitted items and or re-inspection by the city on all corrected items requiring a building permit is required.  In most cases there will be an additional fee for any re-inspection's.

Once the items have been corrected and the proper paperwork submitted to the city, a certificate of compliance will be issued.

If the repair replace items are to be corrected by the buyer, it is the responsibility of the Realtors and the buyer to submit a certificate of responsibility signed by the buyer to the city within 10 days of the closing on the sale of the property.

The Truth and Housing report will state the condition of the property based on the city's guidelines.  Remember that only the repair replace ( R R ) items must be corrected.

It is important to have a correct and accurate report in order to ensure a smooth real estate transaction and protect both the buyer and seller.