The transaction lane

Buying a home with a well in Michigan

A house with a well adds one inspection city-water buyers never schedule, and in Michigan the rules for it change at the county line. Three things decide what happens: whether the county runs a point-of-sale program, what the loan program demands, and what you write into the purchase agreement yourself. Get all three right during the contingency window and the well becomes a known quantity with a price tag. Miss them and whatever is in the water closes with the house. This page walks the three in order, with the tests worth ordering regardless.

Does the county require an inspection at sale?

Sometimes, and it is worth checking first because a county mandate sets the whole timeline. Michigan has no statewide point-of-sale requirement for wells; county health departments write their own rules. Three programs confirmed from official county sources, checked July 2026:

Washtenaw County

The Time of Sale Program requires an evaluation of the well and septic systems by a certified inspector, including water sampling, before property transfers, with the health department issuing the compliance letter. Plan for weeks, not days. The county's water picture, including its low-arsenic corner of the nine-county USGS study, lives on the Washtenaw County page.
Macomb County

County regulation requires properties on a well or septic system to have those systems evaluated before closing: the well is checked for code compliance, records, and bacteriological plus partial chemical water quality, the report is due to the health department at least five days before closing, and an evaluation stays valid for one year.
Shiawassee County

A county point-of-sale ordinance requires on-site water and sewage systems to be inspected and evaluated before sale or transfer, unless the system was certified within the preceding 12 months.

Other counties run programs too, and programs change, so the reliable move is one phone call to the environmental health division of the county where you are buying. If the county requires nothing, the burden moves to the loan and to you.

What do lenders require for a private well?

The loan program decides. VA-backed loans require a water quality test on any property with a private well, judged against the local health authority standards, per the VA Lenders Handbook (VA Pamphlet 26-7). FHA loans require that well water meet the requirements of the health authority with jurisdiction, or EPA drinking water standards where no local standard exists, and make testing mandatory under listed conditions, including a well less than 100 feet from a septic drainfield or near potential contamination sources, per HUD Handbook 4000.1. Conventional loans typically require no water test at all.

Two practical notes ride along. First, lender-required panels are narrow, usually bacteria and nitrate plus whatever the local health department adds, so passing the loan test is not the same as knowing the water; arsenic and PFAS are not standard lender lines. Second, the sample generally must be pulled by a disinterested party and run through a certified lab, so the county health department or a certified laboratory handles it, not the buyer with a kitchen jar. Confirm the current panel and process with your lender early, because a failed line discovered late can stall a closing.

What should a buyer test before closing?

More than anyone will make you. The county mandate and the lender panel are floors, not due diligence. The buyer version, ordered during the inspection period through a certified lab:

Coliform bacteria and nitrate

The baseline safety pair, and the lines lender programs care about most. EGLE recommends both annually for every well, so a sale is simply the forced first test.
Arsenic

Non-negotiable in the Thumb and Southeast Michigan, where wells draw over the Marshall Sandstone documented by USGS. A one-time lab add-on against a treatment decision that can run to thousands.
PFAS, near documented sites only

If the address sits near an MPART investigation site, test through a lab certified for PFAS analysis and check whether state-run options already cover the property.
Iron, manganese, and hardness

Not safety lines, budget lines. These numbers price the staining and scale equipment the house may need, which belongs in your cost math before the offer goes final.

Where the testing happens, county programs, certified labs, and the state rounds when open, is collected in the free well water testing guide, and every result bands against its limit in Your Michigan Well Test, Explained. Ask the county for the well record too: health departments hold the permit and construction files, and the depth and formation a well draws from shape the arsenic odds in corridor counties like Genesee and Livingston.

Turning a bad result into a negotiation, not a crisis

A failed line before closing is leverage; the same line after closing is an invoice. The sequence that works: certified result in hand, a written quote from an independent licensed contractor for the fix, then the quote goes into the negotiation as a repair request or price adjustment. The published national ranges in the Michigan treatment cost guide keep both sides honest about the number, and a multi-line failure, iron plus hardness plus arsenic is a common Michigan combination, prices as one planned system on the whole-house treatment model rather than three separate purchases. An arsenic line over the limit, the finding this state is known for, has a settled playbook on the arsenic removal page.

We connect Michigan home buyers with independent licensed local contractors who quote treatment in writing from the pre-closing lab report, free, on the timeline a contingency window demands. Request your free match

Well questions in a Michigan home purchase

Does Michigan require a well inspection when a house is sold?

Not statewide. Michigan leaves well and septic oversight to county health departments, and only some counties run a point-of-sale program. Confirmed examples as of July 2026: Washtenaw County requires a time-of-sale evaluation with water sampling before title transfers, Macomb County requires well and septic evaluation before closing, and Shiawassee County requires inspection before transfer unless the system was certified within the preceding 12 months. Everywhere else the inspection is voluntary, which means the purchase agreement is where it gets required. Call the county health department where you are buying; the rules are local and they change.

What well water tests will my lender require?

It depends on the loan. VA-backed loans require a water quality test on private wells, judged against local health authority standards per the VA Lenders Handbook. FHA loans require that well water meet the standards of the health authority with jurisdiction, or EPA standards where none exist, with testing mandatory under listed conditions such as a well too close to a septic system, per HUD Handbook 4000.1. Conventional loans usually require no test at all, which shifts the job to your inspection contingency. In every case the sample must run through a certified lab, and the local health department defines the accepted panel.

The pre-closing test found a problem. Who pays to fix it?

Whoever the negotiation says, which is why the result needs to arrive before the contingency deadline, not after closing. A failed line becomes a repair request, a price concession, or seller-paid treatment, and a written quote from an independent licensed contractor is what turns the lab number into a dollar figure both sides can negotiate against. We connect buyers with a local contractor for exactly that quote, free, and the published cost ranges on this site give the negotiation its guardrails.

Should I still test if the county and the lender require nothing?

Yes, and in that case you are the only one who will. A private well transfers with zero disclosure of what is in the water unless someone measures it, the serious findings carry no taste or smell, and the cost of the full panel is small against the price of the house. Order the tests during the inspection period, band the results against the limits, and walk into closing knowing what the water costs. It is the cheapest due diligence in the entire transaction.