So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.
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@89th said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
@aqua-letifer said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
We're being cool, but collecting information, and we will be raining down a world of shit about this if we have to.
The best path, prepare as much in the information armory as you can, but also hope the existing transaction can proceed. Also, I'm not sure what the cost is to repair but consider the bigger picture of the sale of the house in case that trumps what is/isn't fair regarding the pipe situation.
Also, @jon-nyc and @Mik please bookmark this thread so we can reference it later when Aqua discusses his chili recipes.
Thing is, buyers are gonna bail. I'd bet quite a bit on that. Buyer was pissed when he drove off. I thought he was gonna hit something. Our realtor is delusional.
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Apologies if I can't respond immediately here—still dealing with the situation.
My wife and I have had 70+ house showings in the past month. (This is important for later.) We received an offer last week, and the house inspection was scheduled for today. According to our real estate agent, the inspector, two real estate agents, and the buyer showed up for this inspection. My wife and I saw four people outside when we pulled in, so this tracks.
We get inside our house after everyone left, and our septic pipe in the basement is cracked, with a flood on the floor. Quite obviously, we think this has something to do with the randos in our house as this has never, ever happened before in all of our years living here.
They're claiming it was like that when they came in, and it's part of the house's problems.
I've already sent pictures to a plumber. He's of the opinion that yes, definitely, it could have been caused by some jackass standing or sitting on the pipe. There's also the record of well over 100 people being in our house in the past month—no one has ever mentioned water on the floor in the basement, and we've received dozens and dozens of comments back from the showings.
Our real estate agent, too, is actually siding with the inspector and other agents. She's telling us it's probably been like this the whole time, we just never noticed. Which is horseshit for take your pick of obvious reasons.
There was a 3D walkthrough done with the house a few months back. I captured some screenshots. No crack from that time, and it's obvious from the angle.
My whole thing is, I am not paying for this. I just don't know the proper avenue to take here, other than lawyer up. Anyone else have experience with this?
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I'm not understanding some parts of this. You use the word "septic".... do you have a septic tank setup, or are you connected to a city sewer? If you're connected to a city sewer line, there's supposed to be a "backcheck valve" built into the sewer line outside your house and in the pipe underground. This is to stop sewage from coming INTO your house. It allows the sewage to get out of the house, but closes the pipe off inside to any liquid coming toward the house.
Sewage oing through your pipes only happens when you flush a toilet, run a shower, a sink, etc. But you say none of you were home, so there's no reason for sewage to be going through the pipe anyway. Second, if one of the people inspecting your house used a toilet that's not enough liquid to cause sewage to be all over the floor, even if the pipe had a chunk missing.
A crack you had to look for, not matter the size of the crack, those people in your house couldn't possibly run enough water or flush enough toilets to cause this. So my guess is that you're on a city sewer line, and either the backcheck in the line failed (which is the city's responsibility) or there isn't one in the line, in which case you've just been lucky until now. But you used the word septic... although everything else points to you being connected to the utility company's sewer system.
Second... what material is the pipe made of, and why is it exposed in the first place? Depending on the age of the house, it would either be cast iron, or PVC (plastic) pipe. If it's PVC, why is it exposed? Is the crack in a straight pipe section, or in an elbow, or did a pipe joint fail?
I'm just not getting a clear enough picture of the situation - but it sounds to me like what has happened is the city sewer system backed up in the lines and your backcheck failed.
But I could possibly not be understanding what you're talking about at all..
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I'm not understanding some parts of this. You use the word "septic".... do you have a septic tank setup, or are you connected to a city sewer? If you're connected to a city sewer line, there's supposed to be a "backcheck valve" built into the sewer line outside your house and in the pipe underground. This is to stop sewage from coming INTO your house. It allows the sewage to get out of the house, but closes the pipe off inside to any liquid coming toward the house.
Sorry, yes: it’s the wastewater pipe. Takes the discharges from the toilets and sinks.
Sewage oing through your pipes only happens when you flush a toilet, run a shower, a sink, etc. But you say none of you were home, so there's no reason for sewage to be going through the pipe anyway.
It was during an inspection of the house. They test the system by flushing the toilets and running the sinks.
Second, if one of the people inspecting your house used a toilet that's not enough liquid to cause sewage to be all over the floor, even if the pipe had a chunk missing.
Correct. The crack itself didn’t happen because they flushed a toilet. But now, because of the crack, a flushed toilet leads to water in the basement.
A crack you had to look for, not matter the size of the crack, those people in your house couldn't possibly run enough water or flush enough toilets to cause this.
Correct. There’s this weird junction in the line that’s right at the foot of the steps. What I’m saying is that some jackass stood or sat on that junction. The crack in the line, and the placement of the crack, fits this exactly.
Second... what material is the pipe made of, and why is it exposed in the first place? Depending on the age of the house, it would either be cast iron, or PVC (plastic) pipe. If it's PVC, why is it exposed? Is the crack in a straight pipe section, or in an elbow, or did a pipe joint fail?
Cast iron. And see above for explanation of the line. I have no idea why it’s set up like this, other than to say it’s a pretty old house and who knows what they were thinking at the time.
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Ah. I understand it now.
You can save a lot of money by coating the crack with Flex Seal. The stuff works incredibly well.
@larry said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
Ah. I understand it now.
Yeah, a big part of the problem is that I've lived too close to cities for, well, about 20 years now, so unfortunately I talk stupid about house stuff.
Getting better, but plumbing is still pretty foreign to me.You can save a lot of money by coating the crack with Flex Seal. The stuff works incredibly well.
Indeed! A buddy of mine's a contractor and suggested the very same. Doing that today as the first measure. Thanks for reading through it; I figured there was no way others here wouldn't know more about something like this than I.
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@larry said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
Ah. I understand it now.
Yeah, a big part of the problem is that I've lived too close to cities for, well, about 20 years now, so unfortunately I talk stupid about house stuff.
Getting better, but plumbing is still pretty foreign to me.You can save a lot of money by coating the crack with Flex Seal. The stuff works incredibly well.
Indeed! A buddy of mine's a contractor and suggested the very same. Doing that today as the first measure. Thanks for reading through it; I figured there was no way others here wouldn't know more about something like this than I.
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@89th said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
I'm surprised you haven't fired your realtor yet.
Yeah, it's complicated. She's working hard on getting us an as-is offer, knowing this one's likely FUBAR. So we're riding it out until the end of the week. Big question is how she expects us to deal with the pipe after this offer dissolves.
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@89th said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
I'm surprised you haven't fired your realtor yet.
Yeah, it's complicated. She's working hard on getting us an as-is offer, knowing this one's likely FUBAR. So we're riding it out until the end of the week. Big question is how she expects us to deal with the pipe after this offer dissolves.
@aqua-letifer Maybe I missed it, but what is the cost for the repair? I would imagine 750-1500?
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@89th said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
@aqua-letifer Maybe I missed it, but what is the cost for the repair? I would imagine 750-1500?
Gonna be something like that, yeah. Plumber is coming tomorrow for an estimate. Definitely going to ask him to list his educated opinion on the cause of the break in the estimate.
And of course this is all preparing for the deal falling through and we're left with a cracked pipe. If something stupid happens and the sale continues for some reason, then fine, whatever.
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What a weird series of events.
The initial story from the inspector, both real estate agents, and the buyer were that they found the basement like that: they walked in, and there was the puddle on the ground. Crack was already there and everything. Which my wife and I both knew was horseshit.
They had until last night at midnight to submit the inspection. Last night at about 8, our real estate agent was informed that, well, they don't know anything about anything, but maybe perhaps, what might have sort of happened was that when the inspector tried to probe the line, he didn't know how to undo the end cap, and you know, they're just guessing here but maybe he cracked the pipe while doing so.
So, just to keep everything kosher, the buyers are willing to pay for the fix.
I very much wonder what all these conversations really sounded like.
Please love yourself.
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What a weird series of events.
The initial story from the inspector, both real estate agents, and the buyer were that they found the basement like that: they walked in, and there was the puddle on the ground. Crack was already there and everything. Which my wife and I both knew was horseshit.
They had until last night at midnight to submit the inspection. Last night at about 8, our real estate agent was informed that, well, they don't know anything about anything, but maybe perhaps, what might have sort of happened was that when the inspector tried to probe the line, he didn't know how to undo the end cap, and you know, they're just guessing here but maybe he cracked the pipe while doing so.
So, just to keep everything kosher, the buyers are willing to pay for the fix.
I very much wonder what all these conversations really sounded like.
@aqua-letifer said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
willing to pay for the fix
Tell them to keep the money and give an apology.
Well, maybe not all the money.
Actually, OK, let them pay.
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What a weird series of events.
The initial story from the inspector, both real estate agents, and the buyer were that they found the basement like that: they walked in, and there was the puddle on the ground. Crack was already there and everything. Which my wife and I both knew was horseshit.
They had until last night at midnight to submit the inspection. Last night at about 8, our real estate agent was informed that, well, they don't know anything about anything, but maybe perhaps, what might have sort of happened was that when the inspector tried to probe the line, he didn't know how to undo the end cap, and you know, they're just guessing here but maybe he cracked the pipe while doing so.
So, just to keep everything kosher, the buyers are willing to pay for the fix.
I very much wonder what all these conversations really sounded like.
@aqua-letifer said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
What a weird series of events.
The initial story from the inspector, both real estate agents, and the buyer were that they found the basement like that: they walked in, and there was the puddle on the ground. Crack was already there and everything. Which my wife and I both knew was horseshit.
They had until last night at midnight to submit the inspection. Last night at about 8, our real estate agent was informed that, well, they don't know anything about anything, but maybe perhaps, what might have sort of happened was that when the inspector tried to probe the line, he didn't know how to undo the end cap, and you know, they're just guessing here but maybe he cracked the pipe while doing so.
So, just to keep everything kosher, the buyers are willing to pay for the fix.
I very much wonder what all these conversations really sounded like.
Does this also mean they will actually buy the house? Is the sale going through?
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@aqua-letifer said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
What a weird series of events.
The initial story from the inspector, both real estate agents, and the buyer were that they found the basement like that: they walked in, and there was the puddle on the ground. Crack was already there and everything. Which my wife and I both knew was horseshit.
They had until last night at midnight to submit the inspection. Last night at about 8, our real estate agent was informed that, well, they don't know anything about anything, but maybe perhaps, what might have sort of happened was that when the inspector tried to probe the line, he didn't know how to undo the end cap, and you know, they're just guessing here but maybe he cracked the pipe while doing so.
So, just to keep everything kosher, the buyers are willing to pay for the fix.
I very much wonder what all these conversations really sounded like.
Does this also mean they will actually buy the house? Is the sale going through?
@brenda said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
Does this also mean they will actually buy the house? Is the sale going through?
Well, it isn't sunk yet, I guess I'll say that. We've also got a very loose but still potential runner-up. Apparently they haven't found anything else they liked yet.
So, y'know, definitely maybe.
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Take the money and run. That's a given, correct? Any offer they give will factor that cost into it.
@mik said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
Take the money and run. That's a given, correct? Any offer they give will factor that cost into it.
Correctamundo. We have some flexibility regarding the offer, so we're playing it cool and seeing what they counter with.
I can't believe they're going through with the fix.
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@mik said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
Take the money and run. That's a given, correct? Any offer they give will factor that cost into it.
Correctamundo. We have some flexibility regarding the offer, so we're playing it cool and seeing what they counter with.
I can't believe they're going through with the fix.
@aqua-letifer said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
I can't believe they're going through with the fix.
I may have missed it (too lazy to scroll up), but what's the expected cost of the fix?
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@aqua-letifer said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
I can't believe they're going through with the fix.
I may have missed it (too lazy to scroll up), but what's the expected cost of the fix?
@george-k said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
@aqua-letifer said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
I can't believe they're going through with the fix.
I may have missed it (too lazy to scroll up), but what's the expected cost of the fix?
The plumber's bill, plus an undetermined additional fee to Aqua for dealing with their initial behavior.
Let us help you determine that, Aqua.
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@aqua-letifer said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
I can't believe they're going through with the fix.
I may have missed it (too lazy to scroll up), but what's the expected cost of the fix?
@george-k said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
@aqua-letifer said in So, Our House Inspection Flooded Our Basement.:
I can't believe they're going through with the fix.
I may have missed it (too lazy to scroll up), but what's the expected cost of the fix?
$2k. Verified this independently with a contractor friend of mine, and he was gonna guess that exact same.
Our plumber found wrench marks along the pipe. And there's a freaking exit pipe with a working flap the inspector could've used for the scope, but he wasn't a plumber so he didn't know this and fucked up royally. Our plumber is willing to go on record about all this, so even if the deal falls through, we ain't paying for this shit ultimately.
