The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is a federal government agency that establishes and improves federal home standards. One of the applications which the FHA developed to achieve this goal is a mortgage loan program, which provides government-assured mortgages for non-technical home buyers through participating private lenders. As per the guidelines of the FHA mortgage-lending program, qualified homeowners must undergo an inspection by an FHA-approved appraiser to guarantee the properties they wish to finance meet national housing standards. It is worth noting that the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (or HUD, which is the parent government entity to the FHA) has generated a series of different inspection guidelines for various kinds of properties. Hence, the inspection standards for a detached single family home might vary considerably from the standards to get a prefabricated mobile house (the instructions for the latter traditionally being a little more lenient than the prior, for example).
Layout
FHA inspection guidelines require each property to contain a specific number of rooms. In the minimum, each property has to have a kitchen with a functional cooker, another bathroom, a living room and a bedroom. Bedrooms must contain a minumum of one functional window and door. For families with little children, there must be at least one bedroom for each gender–for instance, a sister and brother can’t share a bedroom, but two brothers can –with another bedroom for the parent(s). To get one-person dwellings, the property can utilize a shared living area and bedroom, but the kitchen and bathroom has to be separate.
Structure
The home must have a functional, durable roof, which has to protect against water and moisture from seeping in. The roofing must also have a”life expectancy” of two years, meaning the roof has to be expected to last for at least two years following the buyers first take residency. The property’s windows have to be in working condition and possess the capacity open and shut as intended. The FHA disqualifies any property built using unsafe construction materials, such as lead or asbestos.
Domestic Systems
The property must have the simple domestic systems needed to power the home, such as an electric system, plumbing system and also a heating/ventilation system. Domestic systems have to be in working condition, free of damage or defect as well as local building codes. The property must have a minumum of one full bathroom with a toilet, sink and tub and/or shower, and all three has to be free of flaw and in working condition. The property has to boast at least two twin electric outlets in every area; FHA inspection guidelines contemplate single outlets a”half” outlet. All electrical outlets must be in safe, working condition. Each room must have permanent lighting fixture installed in the ceiling, and fixtures may not rely on outlets for power; floor lamps don’t satisfy this criterion. Utilities must function independently from other connected units; if the property is a multi-family dwelling, each household must have its own separate utilities, utility monitoring devices and bathroom facilities (although adjoining properties may share laundry facilities).
Safety Characteristics
Properties have to have functional smoke detectors installed per home guidelines (one sensor on each level, including the cellar ); warmth and flame detectors don’t satisfy this criterion. Smoke detectors may be battery operated instead of hardwired, but battery-operated units must contain a feature that informs the occupants once the batteries need replacement.
Security Characteristics
The FHA requires that every property implement all appropriate security measures to protect the home itself and the occupants. FHA inspection standards demand that properties contain the most basic safety features, such as lock-and-key and deadbolt locks for every single outside-accessible door and working locks for many windows. The FHA does not want safety systems be set up in every property; however, for properties which do boast a safety system, the system has to be in functional condition or the seller must completely uninstall the system prior to the final inspection.