HUD Requests Public Comment on Three Revisions to the NSPIRE: Scoring Notice

By: Darshana Subramaniam

September 28, 2026 – Today, HUD pre-published a notice on revisions to the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) Scoring Notice. Comments are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register at regulations.gov.

Since 2019, HUD has been transitioning from the Uniform Physical Conditions Standards (UPCS) to the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE), with all NSPIRE guidance published in July 2023, ending UPCS inspections. NSPIRE is designed to improve inspection standards, processes, and protocols through three key elements: (1) inspection types, including self-inspections, contractor/federal inspections, and federal-only inspections; (2) deficiency categories, including health and safety, function and operability, and condition and appearance; and (3) inspectable areas, including units, inside common areas and building systems, and outside building sites and envelopes.

The first revision is to the Revised Compliance Date for NSPIRE New Affirmative Requirements. Beginning October 1, 2026, the new affirmative requirements must be met; which includes fire labeled doors, ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets or breakers, guardrails, HVAC, interior lighting, and minimum electrical and lighting; otherwise, it will constitute a defect in the inspection resulting in point deductions from the property’s score.

The second is a revision to the NSPIRE Scoring Notice regarding sample size. HUD identified two errors in Table 9, Section V, titled, “Number of Units Sampled Under NSPIRE Scoring and Sampling Methodology Based on Property Size”, which were corrected in notice “National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate and Associated Protocols, Scoring Notice; Correction” (90 FR 5973) on January 17, 2025. The errors were as follows:

HUD is correcting these, so it reads as:

The third revision is regarding two corrections under “Example 2: A Property Where HUD Inspects 10 Units and the Unit Defect Deduction Value is Above 30”. In this, the Defect Deduction Value Per Unit is incorrectly listed as 39.6 when it should be 37.6; as well as the Total Defect Deduction Value Per Unit (Inspectable Area) is listed as 379 when it should be 310.2. 

The comment period will be 60 days once the notice is published in the Federal Register.

To submit comments of your own and view the proposed revisions, see here.