No, not by any lender, any state law or any standard purchase contract: a home warranty is an optional service contract that one side of a sale can offer and the other can decline, unlike homeowners insurance, which every mortgage lender requires for the life of the loan.
The question comes up because a warranty shows up so often in a transaction that it starts to look like a step rather than a choice. It is written into purchase contracts as a seller-paid item, offered by listing agents, and quoted by escrow, and none of that makes it mandatory.
What follows is what is genuinely required at a closing, where the warranty habit comes from, and how Nevada treats the product. General information, not legal or insurance advice.
What is actually required to close
A lender requires a homeowners policy in force at funding, with the lender named on it, and requires it to stay in force for the life of the loan. If the home sits in a mapped special flood hazard area, a federally related loan also requires flood insurance. In a condo or an attached project the lender additionally checks the association's master policy. That is the whole list of required coverage.
Everything else at closing is a title policy, taxes, transfer fees and prorations. There is no warranty line anywhere in that set unless the two parties put one there. Cash buyers are required to carry nothing at all, which is a bad idea on the insurance side and a genuinely open choice on the warranty side.
Where the idea that it is required comes from
Three habits. A seller-paid one-year plan is a common concession in a market where buyers have leverage, so buyers see it in contract after contract. Some listing brokerages provide a plan as part of their service, and many of those plans also cover the seller while the home is listed, so the agent raises it early. And a warranty is sometimes offered in place of fixing something the inspection found, which puts it in the middle of a negotiation where it looks structural.
None of those are requirements. A buyer can strike the line, ask for the equivalent in a repair credit or a price reduction, or accept it and simply not renew after the first year. A seller can decline to provide one; it is a negotiating item like any other.
When accepting one is still the right call
Take it when the seller pays. A free twelve months of coverage on a house whose systems you do not yet know is worth having even with the exclusions, and it costs you nothing but the service fees on any claims you make.
Consider buying one yourself in the first year of an older home with original systems and no repair fund behind you, and on a rental where the dispatch service has value beyond the arithmetic. Skip it where the systems are new and under manufacturer or builder warranty, and where a $5,000 surprise would be inconvenient rather than serious. Weigh the offer of a warranty in place of a repair carefully: a system the inspector called end-of-life is the one a company can decline as pre-existing.
Nevada regulates it, and does not require it
In Nevada a home warranty is a service contract under NRS chapter 690C, not insurance. The provider must hold a certificate of registration from the Commissioner of Insurance under NRS 690C.150 and file its contract forms before selling here, and the Nevada Division of Insurance publishes a lookup for checking one. No Nevada statute requires a buyer or a seller to carry a warranty.
Because the product is a contract rather than a policy, the promises are exactly the ones written in it. Read the covered items, the caps, the waiting period and the exclusions before signing, and check the provider is registered. For anything about your own contract, ask the provider in writing or, where a dispute is genuinely legal, a Nevada attorney.
Questions people ask
Does a lender require a home warranty?
No lender requires one on any loan program. What a lender requires is homeowners insurance, flood insurance in a mapped flood zone, and on a condo the association's master policy certificate.
Can a buyer refuse a seller-paid home warranty?
Yes, and buyers sometimes do in favor of a price reduction or a repair credit of the same value. It is a contract term, so it can be struck or renegotiated like any other.
Does a home warranty replace homeowners insurance?
No, and nothing does. Insurance covers sudden damage from fire, wind, water and theft and is required by the lender; a warranty covers systems and appliances wearing out and is optional.