Home Inspections in Massachusetts: The Law Changed, and It Changed Offers

Massachusetts sellers can no longer require or accept a waived home inspection as a condition of accepting an offer. The rule, part of the Affordable Homes Act signed in 2024, took effect for most Massachusetts home sales on October 15, 2025. Buyers still may decline an inspection — but only after their offer has been accepted, never as the price of getting it accepted.

For anyone who bid on a house in Greater Boston between 2020 and 2024, this is a structural change. Waiving the inspection had become one of the standard levers buyers pulled to win, and it put people into houses with problems they had never looked for. The new rule removes that lever from the table for everyone at once, which is the only way a change like this can work — no individual buyer can afford to be the only one still asking for an inspection.

What exactly does the rule require?

Two things.

First, a prohibition: a seller or a seller's agent may not require, encourage, or accept an offer that makes waiving the home inspection a condition of acceptance. Violations may be treated as unfair or deceptive practices under M.G.L. c. 93A, the Massachusetts consumer protection statute, which carries real teeth when a real estate professional is acting in a business capacity.

Second, a disclosure: before or at the signing of the first contract — whether that is the offer to purchase or the purchase and sale agreement — the seller or their agent must give the buyer a separate written notice affirming the buyer's right to a home inspection. Both parties sign it. It confirms the buyer gets a reasonable opportunity to obtain and review an inspection, and to withdraw based on what it finds.

Who is exempt?

The exemptions are narrow and mostly sensible:

• Pre-sales of newly constructed homes, provided they come with a warranty of at least one year. The legislature carved this out to avoid discouraging new housing production.
• Transfers between family members
• Transfers arising from divorce orders or estate planning

If you are buying new construction in Newton or Needham, in other words, the pre-sale exemption may apply — which makes the builder's warranty terms worth reading closely, since the warranty is what you are getting instead.

How did competitive offers change?

The inspection waiver did not disappear so much as get replaced. Buyers competing for the same property now differentiate on the terms that remain:

• A shorter inspection window. Five days instead of ten signals seriousness without giving up the right itself.
• A dollar threshold. Committing not to renegotiate unless the inspector finds defects above an agreed figure. The buyer keeps the ability to walk from something catastrophic, and the seller gets protection from being nickel-and-dimed over a loose railing.
• Inspection for information only. The buyer inspects, learns what they are buying, and agrees in advance not to ask for repairs or credits — reserving the right to withdraw only for a major structural or safety finding.
• A larger deposit, a faster closing, or flexibility on the seller's timeline. These have nothing to do with the inspection and often matter more than people think.

The last of those is underrated. Sellers with children in school or a purchase of their own to coordinate frequently value certainty and timing above the last few thousand dollars.

What does a Massachusetts inspection actually cover?

A general home inspection is visual and non-invasive. The inspector looks at structure, roof, exterior, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling, insulation and ventilation, and interior components. They do not open walls, and they will tell you plainly that they are reporting what they can see.

Several things fall outside a standard inspection and, in this housing stock, are worth ordering separately:

• Radon. Common enough across eastern Massachusetts to be worth testing routinely.
• Lead paint. Massachusetts housing skews old. The Lead Law has specific obligations where a child under six will live.
• Sewer line scope. Cheap relative to what a collapsed line costs, and the older the street, the more it matters.
• Title V septic inspection, for any property not on municipal sewer — this is a seller obligation and a separate process. We cover it in the Title V guide.
• Pests, chimney, and asbestos, depending on age and construction.

What should sellers do before listing?

Assume the buyer will inspect, because now they almost certainly will. That argues for finding out what an inspector will find before you list rather than during a negotiation, when every discovery costs you leverage and momentum.

A pre-listing inspection is not the right move for every property, but fixing the small, obvious, cheap items always is: a GFCI outlet, a missing handrail, a failed seal, an unvented dryer. These are the findings that make a report look longer and more alarming than the house actually is.

This describes Massachusetts law as of 2026 and is general information, not legal advice.