Greater Lansing

Section 8 inspections — HQS & NSPIRE

The standard is mid-change. NSPIRE replaces Housing Quality Standards for voucher programs, HUD has moved the date three times, and until 1 February 2027 your housing agency may still be inspecting under either one. Which checklist your unit is measured against is a question only they can answer — and it decides what preparing for it actually means.

What is actually wrong

The standard is in the middle of changing, and that is the first thing a voucher landlord needs to know. NSPIRE replaces Housing Quality Standards for the Housing Choice Voucher and Project-Based Voucher programs, and HUD has moved the compliance date three times — to October 2024, then October 2025, and in PIH Notice 2026-18 to February 1, 2027.

Until that date a housing agency may keep inspecting under HQS as previously defined, or move to NSPIRE early. Both are legal right now, which means the only reliable way to know which checklist your unit will be measured against is to ask the agency holding the contract. Most of the Section 8 inspection checklists on the internet do not say this, and a good share of them are describing a standard your inspector may no longer be using.

Two things are true whichever standard applies. Smoke and carbon-monoxide alarm requirements were never part of the extension and apply either way. And a failed unit means housing assistance payments stop until it is put right, so the cost of a fail is rent, not just repairs.

Under NSPIRE the pass-or-fail checklist becomes a severity ranking, and the deadlines come with it. For voucher inspections a life-threatening deficiency fails and has to be corrected within 24 hours. Severe and moderate deficiencies fail with 30 days to correct. Low deficiencies are recorded and pass.

Where this stops

When it is not a handyman job

This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor license is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.

Nobody here passes a unit or issues anything. The housing agency inspects and the housing agency decides. This work changes what is found, not what is ruled.
This is not a HUD, REAC or NSPIRE inspection service and no inspection certification is held or claimed. The work is the repairs and the preparation, not the inspection.
Hardwired or interconnected alarm circuits, new circuits, panels and service upgrades are licensed electrical work, referred out and named on the quote.
Water heater replacement and anything past repair scope on supply or drainage goes to a licensed plumber.
No structural alteration and no egress window cut into a foundation — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.
Lead-based paint work on pre-1978 housing above de minimis levels needs a certified renovation firm. Deteriorated paint gets flagged rather than disturbed where that applies.
A hazard is reported, never covered over. Nothing here is about making a line disappear while the thing behind it stays.

The work itself

What actually gets done

A pre-inspection walk of the unit before the agency visits, written up item by item, against the standard that agency is actually using.

Smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms to the current requirement — the part of the rule that applies no matter which standard the inspection runs under.

The 24-hour items first when a report comes back: anything ranked life-threatening is worked before anything else on the list.

Handrails, guards, steps, porches and landings made sound and firmly fixed.

Windows and doors: hardware that holds, locks that secure, glazing intact, egress openable from the inside without a key and its well kept clear.

Kitchen and bathroom function — fixtures working, drains keeping up with supply, leaks stopped, ventilation operating.

Peeling and deteriorated paint addressed, interior surfaces repaired, exterior made weather tight.

Clearance restored around the furnace and water heater, and extension cords taken out of service as permanent wiring.

Photographs against every item, which is how evidence of correction gets submitted and how you hold a record of what was done.

This work sits inside General Repairs, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.

Before you call anybody

Doing it yourself, and when that stops being the right call

Reasons to handle it in-house

A large share of a typical fail list is alarms, batteries, loose handrails, a missing outlet cover, a dripping trap and clearance around the furnace. A landlord with an afternoon can close those, and paying somebody else to is paying them to carry a ladder.
The standards are published and free. HUD puts the NSPIRE standards and the scoring online, the HQS forms are public documents, and your housing agency will tell you which one they are using if you ring and ask.
You know the unit and you know the tenant. Access, notice and what has been reported before are all things you already have and a contractor has to be told.
Walking it yourself is how you find out how long the list is while there is still time to decide who does what — and on a voucher unit, time is rent.

Reasons to bring somebody in

A 24-hour deadline is not a DIY deadline. A life-threatening ranking has to be corrected and evidenced on a clock that does not care whether you are at work, and that is the item that stops the rent.
The licensed-trade line is where self-correction most often fails twice. An item put right by the wrong trade still fails, and on a voucher unit each failed cycle is another month of held payments.
The standard is mid-change and the internet is full of stale checklists. Preparing a unit against the wrong one is work that does not count.
Scale is the real argument. One unit is an afternoon; six units with the same four deficiencies is two weeks, and those repeats are exactly what goes fast in one organized pass.

What it costs

There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.

The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.

Whether this is prep before the inspection or corrections after a fail. A list written by an inspector is a scope; a unit nobody has looked at yet is a survey first.

How many of the items are ranked life-threatening, because a 24-hour clock changes the sequencing and nothing else on the list moves until they are closed.

How many units, and how much of the fail list repeats across them.

Whether the unit is occupied and how access and notice are arranged with the tenant.

How much of the list is licensed electrical or plumbing work, which is priced separately and never absorbed.

How to get a real number

Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labor, and labor carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.

If this is happening right now

What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.

Before anybody arrives

Ring the housing agency holding the contract and ask one question: are you inspecting under HQS or NSPIRE yet. Until February 1, 2027 the honest answer varies by agency, and it decides which checklist to prepare against.
If you already have a report, find the life-threatening items first. Those carry a 24-hour clock and everything else waits behind them.
Test every smoke and carbon-monoxide alarm tonight. That requirement applies under either standard and it is the most common thing found.
Photograph the unit before anybody starts — alarms, handrails, windows, under the sinks, the furnace surround, and all four sides outside. Most of a list can be assessed from pictures without a visit.
Send the previous inspection report if there was one. The same items fail twice more often than not.

Call the business line

(517) 505-7135

Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.

On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.

No trip charge
No call-out fee or minimum
No diagnostic fee
No charge for a return visit

True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.

Or send the details

When the right answer is not this company

You can smell gas: Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
Water you cannot stop: Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once: A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel: Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed: A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.

Questions people actually ask

Is Section 8 still using HQS, or has it changed to NSPIRE?

Both are in use right now, and which one applies to you depends on your housing agency. NSPIRE replaces Housing Quality Standards for the Housing Choice Voucher and Project-Based Voucher programs, but HUD has extended the compliance date three times and PIH Notice 2026-18 now sets it at February 1, 2027. Until then an agency may keep using HQS as previously defined or move early. Ring the agency holding your contract and ask — it decides which checklist your unit is measured against.

How long do I have to fix a failed Section 8 inspection?

Under NSPIRE it depends on how the deficiency is ranked. For voucher inspections a life-threatening deficiency fails with 24 hours to correct, severe and moderate deficiencies fail with 30 days, and low deficiencies are recorded but pass. Under HQS the deadline comes from the agency rather than from a severity ranking, so read it off your own notice. Either way, housing assistance payments are held until the unit passes.

What fails a Section 8 inspection most often?

Smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms, every time. Those requirements apply whether or not your agency has moved to NSPIRE — they were never part of the compliance extension. After that it is handrails and guards, windows that will not stay open or will not lock, egress that needs a key from the inside, leaks under sinks, missing cover plates, extension cords used as permanent wiring, storage against the furnace, and deteriorated paint.

Can you guarantee the unit will pass?

No. The housing agency inspects and the housing agency decides, and no contractor controls that. What preparation does is close the items that commonly fail before they are written down, and give you photographed evidence of what was corrected — which is what the agency wants to see anyway.

Do you do the city inspection as well?

Yes, and they are worth doing together where the timing allows, because the lists overlap heavily and a unit in poor repair tends to be in trouble with both. The city side is covered on the rental inspection prep page before an inspection and the inspection corrections page after one.

Send the report, or the inspection date

If the unit has already failed, send the report — the ranked items are the scope, and anything marked life-threatening gets worked first because that clock is 24 hours. If the inspection has not happened yet, send the date and tell us which standard the agency said they are using. Either way the alarms get checked first, because that requirement applies whichever standard they inspect under. Anything that turns out to be licensed electrical or plumbing work is named and referred rather than absorbed — an item corrected by the wrong trade fails again, and on a voucher unit a second failed cycle is another month of held payments. Coming out is free and there is no trip charge.

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