Selling a Home in Upper Hanover, New Hanover, or Douglass Township, PA: Where the Sewer Authority Is the Gatekeeper

The township itself does not. But if the property connects to the Upper Montgomery Joint Authority sewer system, the authority requires a private sewer lateral inspection at every sale, a rule in force since September 2014. The authority inspects the surface cleanout, televises the private lateral, and surveys the outside drainage, and the owner must call at least ten days before settlement. There is currently no fee, which makes this one of the region’s rare free lateral programs, but a lateral that fails on camera becomes a repair conversation in the middle of your sale, so prudent sellers scope it themselves at listing. Properties on septic or outside the authority’s area skip the requirement entirely; one call to the authority confirms which side of the line you are on.

Nothing. Neither Gilbertsville township runs a resale inspection or use and occupancy permit; both confirm it through the Suburban Realtors Alliance database. Rentals differ: New Hanover registers rental properties without inspecting them, while Douglass inspects rental units for $75 under its 2013 ordinance, with a checklist down to a wall-mounted kitchen fire extinguisher. For an owner-occupant selling a house, though, the municipal step simply does not exist, which puts the whole preparation burden on the private side: the permit file, the septic record, and the disclosure.

The paper trail. Much of the upper Perkiomen Valley runs on on-lot septic, and while none of these three townships mandates a point-of-sale septic inspection, nearly every buyer’s lender and inspector will ask for one anyway. A recent pump-out receipt and a passing inspection report, ordered before listing, remove the largest unknown in a rural sale. The same logic covers wells: a water quality test in hand beats a negotiation over one in week three.

The affordable growth edge of Montgomery County. New Hanover and Douglass feed Boyertown schools and have absorbed heavy new construction along the Route 73 and Swamp Pike corridors, which means resale sellers compete directly with builders and win on settled neighborhoods, mature lots, and no construction timeline. Upper Hanover feeds Upper Perkiomen schools around Green Lane Reservoir, where buyers pay for acreage and water views. Note one tax quirk: Boyertown Area School District spans two counties and its rate differs for Berks County parcels, so verify which county line your buyer is reading about.