Do I have to fix everything on the inspection report?

No. An inspection report in Utah is a list of what an inspector observed, not a list of what a seller must do. A seller is generally not obligated to fix any of it. What happens next is a negotiation inside the buyer’s due diligence period: the buyer asks, the seller answers, and either they agree or the buyer decides whether to proceed anyway or cancel before the deadline.

There are two real exceptions, and a lot of confusion around them. As a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley I handle this negotiation on both sides, in Herriman and in Washington County, and the same misunderstandings come up in both.

For the buyer’s side of the same process, see what happens during a home inspection in Utah and should I waive contingencies in Utah.

What the report is

An inspector’s job is to look at the house and write down what they see. A thorough inspector on a well-kept home still produces pages of findings, because the job is to be complete, not to be reassuring. A cracked outlet cover, a slow drain, a missing downspout extension, a water heater near the end of its typical life, a deck rail that flexes — all of it goes in, alongside anything serious.

Nothing on that list is automatically the seller’s to fix. The Utah purchase contract does not attach obligations to an inspection report. It attaches a deadline.

The due diligence deadline

Most Utah sales use the state’s standard Real Estate Purchase Contract, which gives the buyer a due diligence period ending on a specific date. During it the buyer inspects, reviews documents, and may cancel for any reason and recover the earnest money. After it, canceling generally means forfeiting the deposit.

That deadline is the whole structure of the repair conversation. Before it, the buyer has leverage: “fix this, credit this, or I walk.” After it, the buyer owns the findings. Sellers should expect the repair request a few days before the deadline; buyers should send it with enough time left to actually negotiate.

The two real exceptions

Lender-required repairs. If the buyer’s financing is FHA, VA or USDA, the appraiser applies minimum property standards, and certain items — peeling paint on an older home, a missing handrail, an unsafe roof, exposed wiring, wood-destroying insect damage — must be corrected before the loan funds. Those are not negotiable in the ordinary sense; the loan does not close without them. A seller can refuse, but then the buyer cannot buy. VA buyers in particular should know this going in.

Disclosure. Utah sellers complete a property disclosure form before the buyer’s due diligence begins. A seller who learns of a material defect — from their own inspection or the buyer’s — is now on notice of it, and if this buyer walks, the next buyer must be told. That is not a repair obligation. It is a reason the seller may prefer to fix or credit now rather than carry the defect into the next contract.

Negotiable, not negotiable, and not worth asking

Category	Examples	What usually happens
Health and safety	Gas leak, electrical hazard, active roof leak, failed furnace or cooling, radon, structural movement	Seller fixes or credits; buyers walk if not
Major systems near end of life	Water heater, HVAC, roof with a few years left	Credit or price reduction, rarely a replacement
Deferred maintenance	Caulk, grading, gutter extensions, worn seals	Sometimes a small credit; often nothing
Cosmetic and minor	Outlet covers, sticking doors, nail pops, a cracked tile	Not worth asking; it weakens the serious requests
Lender-required	See above	Must be done for the loan to fund

A repair request that asks for everything gets nothing. Ask for the items that matter — safety, systems, water — and leave the rest. If the list of things that matter is long, the conversation is not about repairs; it is about whether the price was right, and a price reduction is the honest answer.

How the request actually gets written

The buyer’s agent sends an addendum: a short list of items, each with a proposed remedy — repair by a licensed contractor before closing, or a specific credit at closing — and a response deadline that lands before the due diligence date. The seller’s agent replies with an addendum of their own: agree, counter, or decline, item by item. Two rounds is typical. Three means someone is being unreasonable, and by then the deadline is usually the thing that settles it. The document that both parties sign becomes part of the contract, and any repair the seller agrees to must be done before the buyer’s final walk-through, with receipts. Verbal promises do not survive closing; if it matters, it is on the addendum.

Repair or credit?

For most items, a credit is better for both parties. The seller avoids managing contractors during a sale and arguing over workmanship; the buyer chooses their own contractor and standard after closing. Sellers should offer credits; buyers should generally accept them. Lenders cap how much a seller can credit toward closing costs, so a very large credit sometimes has to become a price reduction instead — your lender will say where the line is.

The exception is anything the lender requires done before funding. That has to be a repair, completed and re-inspected, and the seller usually controls it.

North and south: what shows up on the report

Along the Wasatch Front: basement moisture, grading toward the foundation, furnace age, roof condition under snow, radon (common in Utah and worth testing), and older electrical panels. In Washington County: the cooling system’s age and condition, roof exposure on south and west faces, irrigation and drainage for short intense storms, stucco cracking, and the items a desert-specific inspection looks for. Same contract, same negotiation, different lists.

The mistake each side makes

Buyers ask for everything, on the theory that more requests mean more concessions. It does the opposite: a twelve-item list signals a buyer looking for reasons, and sellers respond by declining all of it. Sellers refuse everything on principle, forgetting that the buyer can still cancel inside the deadline and that the next buyer’s inspector will find the same items. The negotiation goes best when both sides treat the report as what it is — information about the house — and spend their effort on the three or four things that are genuinely expensive.

What I tell each side

Sellers: service the main system and fix the small broken things before you list, because every item you leave is a bargaining chip. When the request comes, respond to the serious items and decline the trivial ones plainly. Offer credits. Do not let a request for a cracked outlet cover derail a sale.

Buyers: read the whole report, then ask for what matters. Safety, systems, water. Send the request with days to spare before the deadline. And decide in advance what you would walk over, because the deadline is your protection and it does not extend itself.

Whatever repairs you do agree, verify them before you sign — the final walkthrough is where that gets checked, and your leverage drops sharply once the deed records.

If you are inside a due diligence period right now and the report just landed, the answer sheet has the questions I go through with buyers at exactly this point.

— Kelsey Earl, Realtor, Keller Williams South Valley

Note: General information, not legal advice. Contract terms and deadlines vary, and your own transaction may differ — read your actual purchase contract and speak to a Utah real estate attorney about any specific situation.