We Buy Houses As Is

Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections states that it issues notices of violations of the Philadelphia Code related to construction, use of buildings, and certain business requirements, and that depending on the severity an enforcement order may be issued along with the notice of violation.

No. L&I states that a violation will remain open unless complied with or an appeal is upheld, that fees will accrue until the violation is resolved, and that it will close the case once all violations are resolved and all fees are paid in full. Time on its own does not clear it.

L&I states that an appeal can be filed with the Board of License and Inspections Review within 30 days of when the initial violation notice was issued, or within six days where the violation is issued for unsafe or imminently dangerous conditions. It also states that final violation notices cannot be appealed.

L&I states that you must either fix all violations listed in the notice and pay any fees, or file an appeal, and that otherwise the property will remain in violation status. That status travels with the property record, which is why it is worth stating at the start of any conversation about a sale.

The Philadelphia Sheriff's Office describes a Right of Redemption under which, within nine months of the acknowledgment of the deed, the owner of record can go to court for permission to recover the property by paying all back taxes and the money paid by the winning bidder. It applies only where the property was determined owner-occupied 90 days prior to the sale, and not at all to a mortgage foreclosure sale.

Yes, and on harder terms. The Sheriff's Office states that all properties are sold AS IS with no expressed or implied warranties or guarantees whatsoever, and that the bidder assumes responsibility for investigating liens, encumbrances and mortgages. Where the property is occupied, the new owner must start a judicial procedure for ejectment to have the occupant removed.

Buying a house in its current condition is a description of what is not required rather than a promise about what will happen. No repairs are required before a review. The house does not need to be cleared, cleaned, staged or made ready for visitors. What still happens is a review of the property and of the documents, and an agreement that sets out every term either side is relying on.

That distinction is worth holding on to, because the phrase on a marketing page and the phrase in a contract are defined in different places. Ask what it means in the document in front of you. Ask what is being taken on by the buyer, what remains with you until settlement, and what either side can do if the review turns up something unexpected.

It also means condition information helps you rather than exposes you. Describing a defect early makes it a known term rather than a discovery, and a known term is priced once. A defect that surfaces after terms are agreed has to be dealt with at the point where both sides have already built plans around a date.

Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections states that it issues notices of violations of the Philadelphia Code related to construction, use of buildings, and certain business requirements, and that depending on the severity an enforcement order may be issued with the notice. So a notice can arrive as one document or as two, and the enforcement order is the part that carries teeth.

What it does next matters more than what it says. L&I states that a violation will remain open unless complied with or an appeal is upheld, that fees will accrue until the violation is resolved, and that L&I will close the case once all violations are resolved and all fees are paid in full. Nothing in that sequence happens by the passage of time alone.

If a notice exists on your property, say so at the beginning. It is a term to be dealt with in an agreement, not a reason a property cannot be sold in its current condition. What creates difficulty is a notice that is discovered during a review after a price has been agreed, because then a conversation about condition becomes a conversation about renegotiation.

L&I states that an appeal can be filed with the Board of License and Inspections Review within 30 days of when the initial violation notice was issued, and that where the violation is issued for unsafe or imminently dangerous conditions the appeal must be filed within six days. It also states that final violation notices cannot be appealed at all.

The alternative route is compliance. L&I states that you must either fix all violations listed in the notice and pay any fees, or file an appeal, and that otherwise your property will remain in violation status. Those are the two doors, and a deadline sits on one of them. If either applies to you, that is a question for your own adviser rather than for a buyer.

There is a related definition worth knowing. L&I states that a structure is deemed unsafe when the structure is found to be dangerous to the life, health, property or safety of the public or the occupants of the structure. That is the category attached to the six-day window, which is why an unsafe designation changes a timetable rather than only a description.

The Philadelphia Sheriff's Office states that all properties at its sales are sold AS IS with no expressed or implied warranties or guarantees whatsoever, and that in anticipation of participating the bidder assumes responsibility for investigating liens, encumbrances and mortgages which the post-sale Schedule of Proposed Distribution may not satisfy. That is a much colder version of as is than a negotiated purchase.

The lien position is not uniform either. The Sheriff's Office states that properties are generally sold free and clear of liens and encumbrances, but that some properties are sold subject to other liens, and that a buyer takes subject to those liens to the extent they remain unpaid. Which category a given property falls into is something a bidder has to establish for themselves.

Occupancy is handled after the fact rather than before it. When the Sheriff's Deed Poll is issued to the winning bidder, that bidder becomes the official new owner, and where the property is occupied the new owner must start a judicial procedure for ejectment to have the occupant removed. None of that is a service we provide; it is the comparison a negotiated sale sits against.

The Philadelphia Sheriff's Office describes a Right of Redemption: within nine months of the acknowledgment of the deed, the owner of record can go to court and get permission to recover the property by paying all back taxes and the money paid by the winning bidder. It is a genuine route, and the two conditions attached to it are narrow.

Two limits define it. The Sheriff's Office states that the Right of Redemption is only applicable if the property scheduled for Tax Sale is determined to be owner-occupied 90 days prior to the sale, and that if the property is unoccupied or abandoned there is no Right of Redemption. It also states that the right does not apply to any property sold at the Mortgage Foreclosure Sheriff Sale.

If any of this touches your situation, the people to speak to are your own attorney and the parties named in the case. The reason it appears on this page is that a seller weighing a direct purchase against letting a process run should be able to see what the process actually provides, stated in the words of the office that runs it.

Bring the address, a contact method, a short condition summary and your preferred timing. Say who is named on the deed and who is living in the property. If a notice, a judgment or a scheduled date exists, say that too. None of those close the conversation; all of them change which questions come first, and stating them early is what keeps a review short.

Ask for the offer in writing and read all of it. The parts that decide what happens are the scope of the purchase, the treatment of anything the review turns up, the allocation of settlement costs, and the mechanism for amending any of that. If the answer you are given no longer matches the document, it is the document that has to be reissued.

A direct purchase is one option among several, and this page exists so that it can be compared against the others on its actual terms. Start with the number above or the offer form on this page whenever you want that comparison, and bring your own advisers into it at any stage. A review ends with more information in your hands and no obligation attached to it.

Decide early what stays with the house and what leaves with you. Appliances, sheds, tools, fuel, stored materials, papers and anything of sentimental value should be on a short written keep-or-leave list rather than resting on an assumption either side is making quietly. Anything on that list which matters to you belongs in the agreement, not in an exchange of messages.

Access is a separate question from ownership. Say who occupies the property and who should be contacted to arrange entry, because your availability does not establish theirs. If a tenant, a relative or a caretaker is involved, that is worth naming at the start; a date agreed without the person who has to open the door is a scheduling problem in waiting.

Possession is a third question again. Ask what the agreement says about when the property has to be available, what condition it has to be left in, and what happens if you still need access afterwards to finish clearing. Raise that before signing. Agreed in advance it is a term; raised afterwards it is a renegotiation of something both sides had already treated as settled.