Darby and Collingdale share a border, a trolley line, and a housing stock of brick rows and twins that has anchored eastern Delaware County for a century. Darby holds one of the oldest town charters in Pennsylvania and one of the oldest libraries in the country; Collingdale holds the tidier fee schedule. Both require a use and occupancy certificate to sell, and Collingdale adds a document most sellers have never seen before: a sewer lateral inspection report.
The Darby and Collingdale seller picture
Buyers in both boroughs are first-timers and investors drawn by some of the lowest entry prices in the county, with the trolley and the airport corridor holding demand steady. Sellers skew long-tenured, and the rowhome stock ages the same way on both sides of the line: detector generations, stair rails, electrical covers, and sidewalks that have moved with the trees. Both processes reward the seller who fixes the known list before the first inspection.
Darby: the $175 U&O
Darby’s codes fee schedule lists the use and occupancy permit at $175 for residential properties, with the code office handling applications and scheduling. Two adjacent line items matter to some sellers: the single-family rental license at $200, which needs to be in good standing on tenanted properties, and the permit fees for building, electrical, and plumbing work, which are the paper trail the borough checks when past improvements come up. Selling a Darby house with an open or missing permit is the slow version of the process; the fast version starts with a permit history call in listing week.
Collingdale: $150, $65 reinspections, and the lateral form
Collingdale’s fee resolution and forms page set out the process:
- Fee: $150 for the initial U&O inspection, with each reinspection at $65.
- The paperwork: the borough publishes a resale certificate announcement and residential inspection requirements, so the scope is readable before the visit.
- The lateral: a sewer lateral inspection report sits among the resale forms. Confirm with the code office whether your sale needs one, and if it does, book the camera inspection early, plumbers schedule out and settlement dates do not.
The Pennsylvania money
The realty transfer tax runs 2% total in both boroughs, customarily split, so the seller’s half on a $150,000 sale is $1,500. Pennsylvania has no exit withholding, and the federal exclusion covers up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 for couples, which shelters long-tenured sellers here entirely. The home-sale tax guide and the cost-to-sell guide run the numbers.
Where downsizers here go
Downsizers from either borough look to the one-floor condos of Springfield and Ridley, the elevator buildings around Media, and the full county map in the Delaware County downsizing guide. The sequencing guide answers what happens first.
Getting started
The order in either borough: a free valuation set against the investor floor and the first-timer ceiling, the permit history and any rental license checked in listing week, the published requirements walked room by room, and the lateral question asked of the Collingdale code office before it asks you. The complete downsizing guide carries on from settlement.