I bought my current house roughly a year and a half ago(June of 2023). It was built in 1960, originally a 3 bedroom and 1 bathroom home. The house had been purchased from an elderly couple by a realtor who flipped it. At some point(years ago), there was an addition(slab floor) built onto the original house. It consisted of a living room and two storage rooms. The realtor who purchased the house from the elderly couple turned the storage rooms into a primary bath and bedroom, therefore increasing livable square footage and listing price. So now it was considered a four bedroom and 2 bathroom home, just what I was looking for.
I made a major mistake in trusting my realtor on a home inspector. Needless to say this inspector missed blatant red flags with this home.
Literally the first day in our new home, I noticed that the water valve to the toilet in the newly constructed bath room had been turned off(this was noted by the inspector). I preceded to turn it on, fill the toilet and flush it. I was immediately met by a strong sewer gas smell. I called my realtor to get in touch with the seller(realtor/flipper)so I could ask who had done the plumbing in the new bathroom. Needless to say after some back and forth, she played dumb and was of no help.
A few months went by, I had various plumbers/companies come out and we started to form an opinion on what was going on. Most of the big companies just told me the bathroom wasn’t vented properly, and proceeded to quote me hefty estimates.
I finally had a gentleman from a big company(Eric, you the man!)come out and take a look. He agreed that there was a venting issue with the bathroom, but he also thought there was more to the problem. He ended up scoping a vent stack that had been installed when the bathroom was constructed. Instead of venting everything through the roof, they had tore out the slab, ran a vent from the bath room to the outside of the house and then vertically up past the roof. This is the only vent for the bathroom.
While scoping he noticed standing water in the vent/stack. Upon further inspection he noticed his scope had indicated a dramatic change in pitch, and that his scope had dropped down and entered some sort of chamber. He asked if they had installed a second septic tank and I told him no, but that it was disclosed that I had an old cistern, that I had never laid eyes on. We went back and forth and came up with the idea that they had used the old cistern as a dead end septic tank.
After coming up with this situation as the most likely, I started to dig for information from previous owners. I got in contact with the previous elderly home owners and started to pick their brain. Not only did I contact them, but I was able to contact a gentleman who owned the home about 30 years ago. Lo and behold, he was actually a licensed plumber. He agreed to come out and take a look at the home and show me what all had been changed since his time living there. This is when I got my confirmation as to what had been most likely done.
He stated that where the new bathroom had been constructed, was formerly an old storage room, that had a cistern in it. Where the shower is now, is where the lid to the cistern was seated. After confirming how fucked of a situation I was facing, I lawyered up immediately.
Now we have been playing the lawyer game for the last 6 months going back and forth. The kicker to all of this is the disclosure, none of the work done to the storage rooms(now primary bedroom and bathroom), was disclosed. None of the plumbing, electrical etc.
During the discovery process, more things have came to our attention that weren’t disclosed. One of them being that the house has a major moisture issue with the crawlspace, so bad that one room had to have the floor/subfloor completely ripped out, to replace every single floor joist in it. Now I’m having to have someone else come take a look at my crawlspace and inspect the foundation.
Additionally when they remodeled the kitchen, they installed recessed lighting, none of which the electrical work was disclosed. That goes for the primary bedroom and bathroom as well, electrical work was done in both rooms, none of it disclosed.
We know none of the work done was permitted/inspected, one of the first things we checked into. No permits or inspections were made to any of the plumbing or electrical work. Thankfully we have a leg to stand on legally with the non disclosure of work done. My lawyer really likes our chances if this case in fact does ever make it to trial.
This house has been a nightmare from day one, with us uncovering more and more everyday it seems. I didn’t mention the fact that the plumbing issues were so bad that the entire house would fill with sewer gas. We literally would have to open all the doors and windows and leave/go outside until the gas could escape the house. Oh let’s not leave out the sewer gnats either, all throughout my house, their larvae all along my shower pan and anywhere else water might be. I should own stock in Zevo due to how many damn insects trap replacements I’ve bought.
With this all said(congrats if you made it this far, you’re a champ) has anyone else ever encounter a scenario like this? What was your outcome? I personally just want to be done with this hell hole house. The mental anguish of dealing with all this bullshit has been exhausting. I’ve talked to so many contractors and plumbers I have lost count. I would love to make them buy this nightmare back and have them deal with it. Apparently it’s not that easy according to my lawyer. Any insight to other nightmare houses/situations and how they turned out for you would be greatly appreciated!
[link] [comments]
source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1h7wh9e/advise_needed_nightmare_homelong/
Comments
Post a Comment