California requires a camera inspection of your sewer line before you buy. Kentucky and Indiana don't, which means it's on you to ask for one, not on the seller to offer it.
A listener named Lauren had just relocated from another state and was planning to buy once the weather warmed up. One thing from her old home purchase kept nagging at her: back there, sewer line inspections were required. She wanted to know what Kentucky actually requires before she wrote an offer.
Here's what most relocating buyers get wrong about disclosure requirements. They assume every state's rules work the same way, so if something was mandatory back home, it must be mandatory here too. Kentucky doesn't work that way.
The state's disclosure obligations run through the Seller's Disclosure of Property Condition form, available directly on the Kentucky Real Estate Commission's website at krec.ky.gov, and that form is where a seller discloses known issues. It isn't a checklist that forces a sewer scope, a septic inspection, or a camera run down the main drain line. If the seller has never had a problem, there may be nothing on that form pointing you toward one at all.
California treats this differently. A camera inspection of the main drain line is required there as part of a real estate transaction. Kentucky and Indiana don't require it. It's offered as an ancillary inspection service, something a buyer has to think to ask for, not something baked into the process by default. That difference catches out-of-state buyers more than almost anything else in a Kentucky purchase, and it's the single most common question relocating buyers ask.
That gap matters more in some situations than others. A few patterns are worth watching for specifically:
- A home that's been flipped, or sat vacant for 90 days to six months or more, is a real candidate for line problems nobody's caught yet.
- Large trees, old overgrown bushes, or established landscaping close to the house are a classic setup for root intrusion into older lines.
- A household that shrinks (say, a family of five sells to a couple) can develop backups within the first year, since fewer people running water regularly means the debris that would normally clear the line doesn't clear as fast.
- New construction carries its own risk, not because anyone did anything wrong, but because heavy equipment moving materials during the build can crush or disconnect lines that look fine on the surface and only show a problem once someone's actually living there.
None of these show up on a walkthrough. They show up on a scope, which is a camera run down the line, and there's no requirement that anyone offer you one. If you're relocating to Louisville and buying into an older home with mature trees, a home that sat vacant a while, or new construction, that's worth a sewer scope before you close, not after you're the one dealing with a backup.
