Former Home Owner Ignored County Permit Requirements, Now I Might be on the Hook for ~$50,000?

Howdy partners, TL;DR at the end.

In February 2022 my wife and I purchased a home in Maryland--from a house flipper/LLC-- that has a septic tank and water from an old-fashioned hand dug well that sits in the very middle of the back patio. We had a home inspection done, which revealed nothing special about the water supply.

The well water irritates my wife's skin and causes it to get red/inflamed and irritated after a few days of showering. (Note: she has been living overseas for work since before we bought this house and has only come here for short visits. But she will be moving here with me permanently next year.) We talked to a few plumbers and had some water quality tests done which showed we either need serious filtration or we need to abandon the shallow hand dug well and drill a deep well. Seeing as the well is in the middle of our back patio, it's something of a safety concern. We got 3 different quotes for abandonment of the old well and to get a new well drilled and they all came out to roughly $19-$23k. The price is unavoidable because we are in an elevated radium area (northern AA county) and so we have to go to at least 350ft or so. We accepted one of the bids, and this is where things started to get complicated legally.

The contractor applied for a permit to drill, but was told by the county that there was an outstanding permit request for the property and thus a "compliance issue"-- so they would not approve a permit for the work. I called the county and they told me that the previous owner had applied for a permit to build front and side decks and an addition to the 3rd floor. At that time, the county said that in order for the permit to be given, the owner would have to abandon the existing septic, hook up to city sewer, abandon the hand dug well, and drill a new well. He did not do ANY of that, but made the house additions anyway. He then sold house to me and my wife but did not disclose anything about the permit/requirements.

The county's stance is that they are not going to pursue any legal action or start an investigation against me since I was not the one who scorned their permit requirements. But, they WILL require me to abandon my septic and hook up to city sewer if I want them to release a permit to drill a well.

I don't know yet how much it might cost to abandon my septic and lay all new piping for a sewer hookup. I do know that it will be WELL over $10k since I will have to pay a "Sewer Capital Facility Connection Charge" which by itself is already $10,286. This is frankly more than I can even afford, especially since the well by itself is over $20k. But we have to do something because my wife can't live in a house where the water supply irritates her skin so strongly. There is a grant fund I can apply for, but no guarantee I will receive it or that it will even cover all of the expenses involved.

Simply filtering the existing well water is not a sufficient long-term solution, since we have had issues with it drying up in summer, and that does nothing to address the fact that it's still a safety concern having a 3ft wide 20ft deep well in the middle of our back patio.

I have briefly gone through the schedules/title documents and transaction paperwork from when we purchased the house and the most relevant wording I have found so far is the following:

"The said Grantor hereby covenants that it has not done or suffered to be done any act, matter or thing whatsoever, to encumber the property hereby conveyed; that it will warrant specially the property hereby granted; and that it will execute such further assistances of the same as may be requisite."

My questions are:

1. Legally speaking, how "bad" is it that the flipper ignored the permit requirements and had the work done anyway? Is it actually an illegal act, or just "bad practice"?
2. If it was illegal, does that provide strong enough grounds for ME to pursue legal action and seek monetary compensation for the work I will have to do?
3. Any general tips or recommendations (i.e. homework I should do) before I talk to a real estate lawyer?

TL;DR: bought a house from a flipper who did not disclose at selling that he ignored county permit requirements for water/sewage so now my wife and I are stuck with $40-50k worth of required work to fix our water supply issues. Wondering if we have any legal recourse and best way to proceed.

Thank you, and Merry Christmas to you all.

submitted by /u/McCat22
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/18p2z3i/former_home_owner_ignored_county_permit/