Undisclosed oil tanks & leaks, tampering with radon tests & seller dishonesty, oh my! Looooong...

[guest138]

Posting as a guest for confidentiality in case there is any reason I shouldn't be sharing this info (the radon test form specifically mentions something about confidentiality, but I wasn't sure if it meant us as the buyers or the inspector?)...I am so sorry this is so long-so much going on.  But I need some other points of view.  We have now shelled out $1400 for several inspections & I am feeling like I don't want to go through with this deal because of the Seller's dishonesty & what else they might be hiding.  

We are in the process of buying a house.  We were given a Seller's Disclosure by our Realtor (who also happens to work for the same agency as theirs-a Dual Agent situation-ICK!!!!) awhile back & nothing of note was disclosed on it.  We pulled permits from the town looking for info about an addition on the home, and found permits for an an underground oil tank abandonment.  The seller claimed he didn't understand the disclosure meant to disclose that.  Of course the disclosure clearly asks whether there are any underground storage tanks etc.  Our Realtor immediately defended the Seller saying the form is confusing blah blah blah.  

Then when we tried to dig deeper about this abandoned underground tank, he came clean that there was also an above ground tank that leaked & had to be cleaned up.  Also never included on the Seller's Disclosure.  He knew we would find out on our own soon enough so he admitted it.  I was really upset about both these "omissions" but our Realtor told me she felt I was being an alarmist & getting crazy, that they did the proper clean up & get their No Further Action letters from the DEP...no harm, no foul.  

We asked for the underground tank to be professionally removed at their cost ($850) before we proceeded with all the expensive inspections on our part because our Home Owners Insurance would not allow a tank to remain in the ground anymore.  They fought us really hard for a couple days but then finally agreed to remove the tank.  It showed no signs of leaking & then we asked for all the documentation surrounding the above ground tank that did leak.  He finally provided that paperwork last week & we discovered that he did the clean up himself including pulling all the soil samples.  Nowadays, this would never be permitted but 15 years ago, the state let people get away with it.  My friend who works for a company that does this stuff looked at the reports & is very concerned that there may have been some funny business, so he wants to pull a few samples & test them for free just to make sure.  I haven't even mentioned this to the Seller's yet because I know they are going to get very upset about it.  They feel they did everything right & by the book while we feel the exact opposite.  They have been kind of uncooperative about everything involving inspections.

In the meantime, we proceeded with the Inspections & when the topic of the Radon test came up, I begged them to do the right thing & not open the windows or doors for the 12 hrs before the test & 48 hrs after.  I knew I had to mention this because my Realtor on this Buy side told us to open our windows up after the radon kit was left in our house when we were selling it months ago. I told her I thought we weren't supposed to do that & she laughed and side they tell all their Clients to open them.  (by the way-we kept our house closed up so it was a valid test on our end) So I knew she would tell them to open their windows up (she has been covering for her boss, their agent, during his vacation) as soon as the Inspector left.  The Inspector explained to them on Friday how impt it was to get an accurate reading, & that they could run their ACs & fans, but just to leave the windows & doors shut except for normal coming & going.  He used a very high tech computer test that would tell us if the house was ventilated during the test.

He just called me & told me the readings were all over the place for the 48 hours & that they varied from 1 to over 8 (4 or more is failing).  He said that while he could never "accuse" someone of wrong doing, the only explanation he could come up with was that they opened the windows up throughout the 48 hours for extended time periods.  He said he would do it one more time for us for free, warn them again, but that he already suggests we make them do the approx $1500 remediation ventilation system.  (he does not sell these systems or have anything to do with that side of it-he is a licensed Home Inspector, in the business 40 years & highly respected by local Attorneys-not Realtors)

We are still waiting on the results of the well water test from the Sellers but now I am freaking out that somehow they will screw with them, or maybe they did something before the test to manipulate the results.  I can't separate business from emotion right now & am feeling like the dishonesty is just too much for me...we have 2 young children & I am so anxious about this stuff.

The repercussions to us for not going through with the deal are somewhat minor-there is still no contract because their Lawyer friend is being ridiculous about standard details.  We don't need to be out of our current situation anytime soon yet.  We would be out the $1400 inspection $ which is a lot for us right now but not enough to make a potential mistake in buying a home.  We would be losing a home we originally loved very much & was very affordable for us & it might be hard to find as great a match in the area we need to be.  Us not buying would be devastating to them-they need to be out asap for pretty impt reasons &  have had no other interest in 6 months.  

Would you put emotions aside & plow through the deal while protecting your family at all costs (which might mean really pissing off the seller's with requests to test water on our own, pull our own soil samples & insist they fix several items asap including installing a radon system)  Or would principle win out & make you not continue to deal with these people?   

Talk to me...WWYD?

[yeahwhat]

If your offer was contingent on the inspection results, it sounds like the varying readings plus the lack of disclosure would be valid reasons for cancelling the deal.  If I was in that situation, and I had a way out of that deal, I'd run away from the house.  Who knows what else they're not telling you.

[guest138]

Technically, we don't even have a contract done because their attorney is taking so long to do his part.  But it doesn't hurt us at all since they have no other offers.  Even so, the Inspections were the big contingency of course.  There would be no legal issue with us backing out right now.  

Here is where we are at today:

We aren't even going to bother with another radon test.  We are insisting they put in the ventilation system at their expense.  We are conducting our own private well water test tomorrow & adding on the test for radon & other VOCs.  We are also asking for a 1 year home warranty on top of any major inspection items once I get the report later.  If they don't accept those conditions, we will not buy the house.  

DH is saying that at this point, we have uncovered everything major they could have hidden, done a very thorough inspection which showed no water damage, structural damage, leaking, mold etc & are now double checking the water ourselves.  He doesn't see what else they could be hiding except appliances that are old which the home warranty would give us a year of coverage for.

I am still on the fence.  DH says I need to separate my emotions about the sellers & their actions from the business of buying a home.  I struggle with separating my emotions from things all the time...aggghhhh.  

[mattemma04]

I would want to pass,but maybe your dh is right in finding major stuff already. Only other things I can think of that affected us was pests(ants and termintes),yard flooding,property lines.

They might knock off the cost of the ventilation and all that you want instead of paying for it up front.Personally I WOULD want money off,because they might just install the cheapo one.Get 2k off and install a good system.Same with anything else...water tank,heat pump,furnace.People install new ones but usually the cheapest ones!

Check those property lines for encroachments.You could have a line running through a neighbors septic,driveway,or house!