HUD released an update to the Federal Register on January 24, 2023, which is scheduled to be officially published on January 25, 2023. In this notice, [Docket No. FR-6160-N-03], HUD clarified the following:

Through this notification, HUD is informing Multifamily Housing program participants who are currently in this demonstration and have yet to receive an inspection of record since joining the demonstration that between April 1, 2023, and September 30, 2023, HUD intends to conduct an inspection using the NSPIRE standards and scoring and that this inspection will be considered an inspection of record.

Can Owners Opt-Out of the NSPIRE Demonstration Program?

In this Notice, HUD clarifies that owners who have volunteered for the NSPIRE demonstration program and have not yet been inspected may choose to opt out by March 1, 2023.

Demonstration participants who do not wish to be subject to an NSPIRE inspection of record before October 1, 2023, may choose to opt out of the NSPIRE demonstration by submitting a request via email to [email protected] no later than March 1, 2023. Demonstration participants who opt out of the demonstration will be subject to a UPCS inspection of record.

What Will the Scoring on NSPIRE Inspections Look Like?

As of the date of this article, we are still waiting for the NSPIRE Scoring Notice, which will provide a preliminary look at the NSPIRE scoring methodology. There are a lot of unknowns, which will hopefully be clarified in the near future. At the REAC Get Ready Series meetings, HUD REAC leadership has provided anecdotal results that with the new NSPIRE Scoring, properties that historically received positive scores under UPCS received better scores under NSPIRE. Conversely, properties that received lower scores historically did even worse under NSPIRE. This result largely mirrors the general goal of NSPIRE, which was to ensure that substandard properties receive appropriate scores.