If you are selling a house with a Collegeville, PA 19426 address, the thing most likely to delay your settlement may be the sewer pipe running under your front lawn. Whether anyone looks at that pipe depends on your municipality. The ZIP code doesn't decide it.
The Oaks wastewater treatment plant serves Collegeville Borough, Trappe Borough, Lower Providence Township, Upper Providence Township, Perkiomen Township and Skippack Township. Many homes in these towns share a mailing address and all of them send sewage to the same plant. Each municipality still writes its own rules for what has to happen before a home changes hands. In four of them, a seller has to pass a resale inspection. In three of them, the sewer line gets its own separate review before the municipality will issue a certificate.
The ZIP code doesn't tell you which rules apply
Here is what each municipality's current published material says about a standard home resale.
| Municipality | Resale inspection before sale | Published fee | Sewer step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collegeville Borough | Required, even if occupancy isn't changing | $125, covers the first inspection and one follow-up | CTMA sewer inspection must pass before the borough issues its certificate |
| Trappe Borough | U&O certificate required before the new owner moves in | $150, covers the first inspection and one follow-up | CTMA sewer inspection must pass before the certificate is issued |
| Lower Providence Township | Resale certificate and inspection required | $100 for the first inspection and one follow-up, $50 for each reinspection after that | Seller hires a master plumber or utility contractor to video the full sewer lateral, and the Sewer Authority reviews it |
| Perkiomen Township | Certificate of occupancy required on transfer | $50 per residential unit | Seller hires a plumber to camera the lateral and files an affidavit |
| Upper Providence Township | No sale-specific requirement found | Residential U&O is folded into building-permit fees | None found |
| Skippack Township | No sale-specific requirement found | The $100 residential U&O fee applies to new construction | None found for an ordinary resale |
For Upper Providence and Skippack, the table reflects what we could find in their current fee schedules and forms. It doesn't confirm that they're exempt, so ask the township office before you list. Some of the other documents are also old. Collegeville's fee was announced in 2023, and Perkiomen's inspection application was last revised in January 2019. A phone call to confirm current fees is worth making.
The building inspections look for a lot of the same things. Collegeville's checklist covers smoke and CO detectors, fire extinguishers, handrails, GFCIs, dryer venting, house numbers, sidewalks and curbs. Lower Providence adds sump-pump discharge to its list. Most sellers can fix these items in an afternoon. The sewer step is harder, because nobody can see the lateral until a camera goes down it.
Trappe is also clear about what happens if you skip the process. If the U&O isn't done before settlement or before the buyer takes possession, the borough says it can issue fines and a cease-and-desist order that requires the occupants to leave until a valid certificate is issued.
Lower Providence rewrote its sewer rule three times in seven months
The biggest recent change is in Lower Providence. On December 19, 2024, the Board of Supervisors adopted Ordinance 683. Under it, no one can transfer a property connected to the Lower Providence Township Sewer Authority system without a sewer lateral inspection and a sewer inspection certificate. The board revised the program with Ordinance 687 on June 18, 2025, and again with Ordinance 689 on July 17, 2025.
Even the original ordinance required the line to be televised from the house to the sewer main. The July amendment spells out what that covers. It defines the "Full Sewer Lateral" as the private pipe from the house to the curb plus the stretch from the curb or right-of-way out to the Sewer Authority's main. The seller pays a master plumber or utility contractor to televise the line. The plumber submits the recording and a certified condition report, and the Sewer Inspection Officer reviews both. The township's report form lists the likely problems: debris that needs cleaning, a line the camera can't get through, cracked or broken pipe, offset joints, root intrusion and groundwater seeping in.
A few details can change a seller's timeline:
- A lateral certification issued within the two years before the transfer date means you don't need a new inspection.
- Condo units in a building with other units, and not directly connected to the lateral, are excluded.
- Transfers to heirs or a surviving joint owner after a death are excluded.
- Violations carry fines of $1,000 to $10,000, and each day counts as a separate offense.
Lower Providence also requires any trash fees owed to its hauler to be paid at settlement. That's one more line item to settle before closing.
Perkiomen Township has a similar rule. For homes on public sewer, the seller hires a plumber to camera the lateral "from the house/building to the sewer main," and the township won't issue a certificate until it has the plumber's affidavit. In Collegeville and Trappe, sellers call the Collegeville-Trappe Municipal Authority at 610-489-2831 to schedule a sewer inspection. Collegeville's resale form says the CTMA inspection can happen before or after the borough inspection, but the borough won't issue its certificate until CTMA confirms a pass. CTMA doesn't publish its fee or checklist, so ask when you call.
Why a plant with a clean record still cares about your lateral
The Oaks plant is in good shape on paper. In DEP's draft permit review from August 2025, it is rated "Not Overloaded" with "No Limitations" on new connections. DEP also said the facility complies with its permit and is operating well. The plant is permitted for 14.25 million gallons a day on an annual average, and its maximum monthly figure is 26 MGD.
The same document shows how much flow jumps in wet weather. From February 2024 through January 2025, average monthly flow ran between about 5.3 and 7.2 MGD in most months. In March 2024 it hit 12.17 MGD, and in April 2024 it was 10.958 MGD. On April's peak day, the plant measured 35.527 MGD. The number of people using the system didn't double that spring, so the extra volume was mostly water from outside the household plumbing.
The local rules go after exactly that kind of water. Lower Providence's ordinance bans sending sump pumps, roof runoff, groundwater, foundation drains and HVAC condensate into the sanitary sewer. It describes the lateral review as a way to catch defects or connections that let inflow and infiltration into the system. In January 2026, the CTMA committee approved a $13,940 engineering work order for a Phase I inflow and infiltration investigation.
None of the documents we reviewed ties these resale rules to a DEP order. They point to something simpler. Rainwater and groundwater entering through private pipes take up capacity that everyone pays for. A home sale is one of the few times an authority has the legal leverage to get a homeowner to fix a pipe that's out of sight.
When the camera finds a problem
A failed inspection doesn't have to stop the sale. Pennsylvania's Municipal Code and Ordinance Compliance Act says that when a resale inspection finds violations that aren't substantial, the municipality issues a temporary use and occupancy certificate. If it finds a substantial violation, it issues a temporary access certificate instead. Either way, the municipality can't require an escrow or bond as a condition of issuing the certificate. The buyer then has up to 12 months from the purchase to fix the cited items. A municipality can agree to a longer period, but it can't shorten the 12 months.
Lower Providence's sewer ordinance has its own version. If repairs can't be done before the transfer, the township can issue a temporary sewer inspection certificate, and the violations must be corrected within 12 months. Repair and reinspection costs fall on whoever owns the property when the work is done, "unless otherwise agreed to between the buyer and the seller." Perkiomen's application says the buyer must sign any temporary certificate and return it to the township within 14 days or before settlement, whichever comes first. The work and the reinspection must then be finished within 12 months of settlement.
In practice, a bad lateral usually becomes something to negotiate. The seller can make the repair before closing, offer the buyer a credit, or agree to split the cost. A temporary certificate lets the buyer take on the repair after closing. We couldn't find reliable local figures for what these repairs cost, so get a plumber's written estimate before you agree to a number.
For a seller in one of the four inspecting municipalities, this order of steps leaves the most room:
- Confirm which municipality your parcel is in. Don't go by the mailing address.
- Call that office and the sewer authority for current fees and forms before you list.
- In Lower Providence or Perkiomen, get the camera inspection done early. A failed video found in week one leaves time to choose between repairing and offering a credit. One found the week of closing doesn't.
- Fix the easy items on the checklist, like smoke and CO detectors, GFCIs, house numbers and handrails, before the inspector arrives.
- If something can't be fixed in time, write down in the agreement of sale who pays for the work covered by the temporary certificate.
Questions sellers ask about this
Do the local transfer taxes differ too? A little. Montgomery County's Recorder of Deeds describes a 2% total rate. The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue sets the state's share at 1%, and the Recorder of Deeds collects it along with the local tax. How the local 1% is split depends on the municipality. Lower Providence's 2026 fee schedule splits it between the township and Methacton School District. Skippack's tax page lists 0.5% for the township and 0.5% for Perkiomen Valley School District. Collegeville's code sets a 1% borough rate and cuts it in half when Perkiomen Valley School District also taxes the transfer, and Trappe's code works the same way. Your title company will confirm the exact figures for your settlement.
Did Montgomery County's 2026 budget change anything at closing? The county raised its real estate tax rate by 4% for 2026, from 5.252 to 5.462 mills. WHYY reported the increase after the December 2025 vote. This affects the tax prorations on a settlement statement. It isn't a separate step for the sale.
My Lower Providence condo shares a building with other units. Do I need the camera inspection? Probably not. The ordinance excludes condo units in multi-unit buildings that aren't directly connected to the sewer lateral. The township's own resale inspection still applies.
If you're getting ready to sell in the 19426 ZIP code and want to know which rules apply to your parcel before a buyer's schedule forces the question, The Glen Russell Team can help you line up the inspections, the plumber and the paperwork in the right order. Contact us, and we'll help you plan your timeline around your municipality's rules.
